
ffass Q L 7 9 / 
Book iJLi 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



UNCLE JACK'S 
DISCOVERY 



Sixty Short, True, Strange, Interesting 

and Instructive Stories about Animals, 

Birds, Fishes, Reptiles and Insects 



WITH 



A Prize Love-Letter to Young America 



BY JOHN H. ACTON 



There is a great deal of Human nature in a Pig. or a 
great deal of Pig in Human nature. 

—Titcomb. 



a^ 1 



Copyrizht 1915 by J. H. Acton 



4' 



*± 



METROPOLITAN PRESS 
PORTLAND - OREGON 

©CLA418477 

DEC -6 1915 



THIS BOOK IS 



NOT published as a sample of literary excellence. 

NOR as a beautiful souvenir to be kept in a dust- 
less drawer. 

NOR as a competitor in the market with the 
thousands of most excellent volumes for children 
that can now be found in all book-stores. 

BUT it is sent forth as a pleading voice for that 
large class of living creatures which have no 
voice to plead for themselves; and as a protest 
against that false epithet of the ages — "Dumb 
Animals" — a heartless slander upon creatures 
that are not dumb. 

WE deprecate war and sigh for peace. War is 
animalism in action — "might vs. right.'* Peace is 
the reverse of this law — right is the only lawful 
might. 

IF we would not rear our boys for soldiers, both 
girls and boys should be taught that life is a 
unit, and all life is sacred. That peace can flourish 
only in that humane sentiment which recognizes 
the right of every living creature to humane 
treatment by human hands. 



C(m?ENTS 



The^ Smartest Dog in the World. 

CaWFish Bill and His Crow. 

Climbing and Walking Fishes. 

Intelligence of Seals. 

Some Wrens That I Have Known. 

Love and Sorrow of Animals. 

An Angry Elephant, and a Treacherous Lion. 

A Dog that Played 'Possum. 

A Ram that Could Run the Churn. 

Spot — the Story of a Chipmunk. 

Charmed Reptiles. 

Pet Crickets, and Gold Beetles. 

A Wren that was a Robber. 

Mamma Elephant, and Her Baby. 

Three Cats that Knew Their Business. 

A Soldier's Faithful Dog. 

Trades Followed by Animals and Birds. 

Strange Habits of Ants. 

Flying-Fish, and Flying-Animals. 

How Mothers are Sometimes Treated. 

Haunts and Habits of the Sea-Otter. 

Drunken Butterflies. 

A Beautiful Euolgy on the Death of a Dog. 

Vampires — Blood-sucking Bats. 

Bird Surgeons. 

Cold-storage Cats and Rats. 

Little Dog "Cap." 

Who Killed Cock Robin? 

A Lady's Private Zoo. 

Seals and Seal Hunters. 



A Cow Scared to Death. 

A Man Saved by His Faithful Dog. 

The Passenger Pigeon. 

Nest-building Fishes. 

Traps that Catch the Wrong Game. 

A Dishonest Dog. 

Habits of the Honey-Bee. 

The Monkey and the Bulldog. 

The Strength of an Ape. 

Butter-Birds. 

Catching Wild Elephants. 

Two Pathetic Deaths of Dogs. 

Funny Fishes. 

A Broken-hearted Bird. 

The Great Sea-Serpent. 

An Intelligent Forest-Tree. 

The Toilet of a Fly. 

A Marvelous Monkey. 

A Dog that Speaks German. 

An Intelligent Goose. 

A Ship Captured by Ants. 

A Good-natured Grizzly Bear. 

Mme. Pattfs Lost Parrot. 

A Frightened Traveler. 

Soldier Dogs. 

Strange Habits of the American Cougar. 

Could this Flying- Squirrel Count? 

Intelligent Foxes. 

Strange Deaths of Two Wild Animals. 

Smart Spiders. 

The Last and Greatest Fish Story. 



Uncle Jack's Prize Letter to 
Young America on Page 208 



THE SMARTEST DOG IN THE WORLD 



Many smart dogs have been considered the 
smartest dogs in the world. But owners are not 
always the safest judges. As there is no way 
in which we can certainly tell, the claim can 
never be successfully challenged. Several years 
ago there was a collie named Bozzie, owned by 
a gentleman in Chicago, Illinois, whose record 
for smart tricks seems never to have been sur- 
passed in this country. But she was not simply 
a trick-dog, she was educated. She did all kinds 
of tricks, but in addition to these she could 
count, add, subtract, multiply, and divide, make 
change with money, distinguish and tell differ- 
ent colors, and in many ways seemed to exercise 
reason just as a child. She showed that she 
could think, and that she had intellect equal to 
any ordinary child of the age of eight or ten 
years, Bozzie came of fine stock. She was the 
daughter of the celebrated Boz, a dog that 
traveled all over this country and Europe, years 
ago, giving exhibitions. He was shown before 
the crowned heads of Europe. The Prince of 
Wales was at one time so impressed with him 
that one night he had his bed at Windsor Castle, 
in order that he might be shown to royalty the 

Page 11 



next day. This dog belonged to W. A. Harris, 
of Mendon, Michigan. But Boz never surpassed 
his illustrious daughter. Bozzie could do almost 
anything but talk. She was often shown at 
entertainments, and was a great favorite at 
picnics and among the children at Sunday 
School parties. Everyone who saw her did not 
hesitate to affirm that she was the smartest dog 
in the world. 

At one time there were five men in a room 
when the performance began. Bozzie was told 
to take a good look at the company and then tell 
how many were there. She passed around the 
room and came back. Her owner asked: "How 
many people are there in the room, Bozzie ?" 

Bozzie barked five times. 

"How many have their hats on?" 

Bozzie barked twice. (Two had hats on.) 

The next question was, "How many are there 
without hats on?" 

Bozzie again barked the right number. 

A gentleman present suggested this was only 
a trick, and that the dog barked until her owner 
gave some sign for her to stop. Her owner then 
pointing to the skeptical speaker said : "Bozzie, 
do what that gentleman tells you." He then 
went and stood with his face to the wall where 
the dog could not see him. The doubter then 
took up the examination. 

"Bozzie, how many are two times four?" 

She barked eight times. 

"Take five from that and how many?" 

Page 12 



Three barks. 

"Add nine to that, and how many?" 

Twelve barks. 

"What is one-half of that?" 

Six barks. 

In every case the answers were quickly given, 
were correct, and there was no trickery about 
it, as all who saw the performance testified. At 
another time, a different memory test was 
made. Four gentlemen present, each wrote a 
number on a card and placed it on the floor. 
The numbers were 1, 6, 4, 1. 

"How many are there altogether?" was 
asked. 

Bozzie barked twelve times. 

"How many days are there in a week ?" 

Seven barks. 

"How many working days?" 

Six barks. 

"How many Sundays?" 

One bark. 

"How many weeks in a month ?" 

Four barks. 

To give her a little rest, her owner now put 
her through some tricks. "Bozzie, we had an 
election some time ago ; if you had been a voter 
which would you have rather done, vote for 
Bryan, or die ?" 

Bozzie stretched herself out on the floor and 
shut her eyes. 

"You must be a McKinley dog, Bozzie, are 
you?" 

Page 13 



A short bark, indicated she was a good 
Republican. 

A five dollar bill was now placed on the floor, 
a silver dollar, a quarter, and a nickel. Her 
owner then asked one present to call for some 
change that could be made with this money. 
One dollar and a quarter was called for. The 
dog made the change, carrying the pieces to 
her master. Other change also, was correctly 
made. 

A hand was held before her and she was 
asked to tell the number of rings on the fingers. 
The rings were on the third finger. Bozzie 
barked four times. She did not distinguish be- 
tween thumb and fingers. Rings were then 
put on different fingers, and in all cases the 
dog told the number of the rings and the 
fingers. 

Bozzie was told to go across the street and 
sit on the top of some steps. She obeyed, and 
remained in position until told to return. 

"How many steps are there over there ?" 

Eleven barks. The steps could not be num- 
bered from that side of the street; but were 
found when counted, as the dog indicated. 

While on the street a colored man was met, 
and Bozzie was asked: 

"How many people are here, Bozzie?" 

Four barks. 

"How many white people?" 

Three barks. 

"How many colored people ?" 

Page 1U 



Bozzie rubbed her nose against the colored 
man's leg and barked once. The man walked 
away amazed, saying: "Dat's a mighty smart 
dog." 

When at the stock yards, she would go into 
the sheep pens and bring out the number of 
sheep she was ordered to bring, and when on 
the farm and ordered to bring up the cows, she 
never brought the steers. When told to bring 
the horses the cows were never brought, though 
they were all in the same lot. If told to bring 
the gray horse, the gray was brought and no 
other. Her owner said she brought his shoes 
when told, or other articles of wardrobe when 
he was dressing, and did not fail to distinguish 
between the articles. Her owner said, also, he 
could send her into a room with fifty articles 
to choose from, and she would bring the thing 
ordered; and declared further, she knew more 
than a lot of people; and when he was getting 
ready to go down street, was better help than 
some people. She was taught much as one 
would teach a child. She learned step at a 
time, just like a child learns. Bozzie was crit- 
ically examined by many scientists, at different 
times, and all agreed there was no collusion, but 
that the dog certainly did her work just as a 
child would do it. She was a beautiful animal, 
always seemed happy, and enjoyed her duties. 
Unfortunately, when about three years old, she 
died of poison. How it occurred was never 
known. 

Page 15 



CATFISH BILL, AND HIS CROW 



Catfish Bill had been given this name by his 
companions because they said he had a mouth 
as big as a river catfish, and that it was always 
open and making a noise. He was an uncouth, 
ignorant, and disagreeable lad, cruel to animals, 
overbearing toward smaller boys, and despised 
by all the little school-girls. He would rob 
birds-nests, and take things that did not be- 
long to him, and altogether was an undesirable 
companion for any one. But Catfish had one 
lover. In some way never explained, Catfish 
had secured a young crow. No one ever seemed 
to know where he obtained the bird, and no one 
was ever interested enough in his answer to ask 
him, for everybody knew that Catfish would 
tell them anything that happened at the mo- 
ment to suit him, and all knew that he only 
needed the opportunity to take it anywhere it 
happened to be when he found it. This crow 
was a queer bird. It grew to be very tame 
about the house and yard, and though never 
confined, and it had freedom to go anywhere it 
chose, it seldom left the premises. Catfish had 
a dog he called Lion ; and almost any time of day 
he could be heard calling Lion. The crow 
learned to call the dog so nearly like the voice 

Page 16 



of Catfish that it was hard to distinguish the 
bird. This pet would get up .on the house and 
call, "Hew Lion, hew Lion, hew Lion, hew 
Lion," quite as plainly as Catfish could. It 
would strut about the house saying, "mother, 
mother, mother, mother," and even learned to 
tease the little children. It would sit on the 
roof of the house and as they passed in the 
street on their way to school, suddenly swoop 
down, flapping its wings near their heads ; they 
would scream and run, while the crow sailed 
back to its perch on the roof and began to "ha, 
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," just as it had heard its 
master many, many times. In those days stock 
was not kept up as in later years, and when the 
village cows passed along the street, the crow 
would strut proudly behind them, muttering 
something to itself at every step. What it said 
no one ever knew; but it acted just as if it con- 
sidered itself the driver, and had to talk to the 
cattle, in order to keep them moving. It never 
made a friend of any one but those about the 
home of Catfish; and of all the inmates, Cat- 
fish seemed to be its especial admiration. No 
effort had ever been made to teach the bird 
to talK. It learned from hearing others, and it 
was very plain from its manner and speech, 
that Catfish had been taken as chief model. 
This crow was quite a curiosity because it could 
talk, but it had the same overbearing, burly 
disposition, and swagger of its owner, was not 
admired by others, and the children of the vil- 

Page 17 



lage were all afraid of it. It strutted about 
with a haughty air, and no one save its home 
friends ever cared even to attempt any famil- 
iarity. Every one said people would easily 
know who owned this crow, for it was just like 
Catfish Bill. 



Page 18 



WALKING AND CLIMBING FISHES 



It would not greatly frighten the bare-foot 
boy with his fishing pole waiting for a "bite," 
to be told that he better watch, or a fish might 
crawl out of the water and bite him. He would 
only laugh. And if after long waiting and he 
had caught nothing, if he was told that perhaps 
all the fish had left the pond and gone visiting, 
or had moved to other quarters, he would think 
you were making sport of him ; for what school- 
boy does not know that fish cannot leave the 
water ! 

It is true, nevertheless, that there are many 
fishes that can bite so hard as to be dangerous, 
and there are others that can crawl on the dry 
land. The fish known as the anabas, that very 
much resembles the black-bass, is found in the 
waters of Southern Africa, and Southeastern 
Asia, and also in India. It can both crawl and 
climb. Sometimes when the pools where they 
live dry up, or for any other reason they de- 
cide to leave them, these fishes will travel long 
distances overland to other places. Nature has 
provided them with a kind of cell in which 
water is stored sufficient to keep the gills moist 
while they travel. They will creep over dusty 
roads in the hot sun without seeming to suffer, 

Page 19 



and even wiggle their way up steep embank- 
ments. Some writers have claimed that they 
can even climb trees. They are a fresh-water 
fish, and do not live in the sea. Just how they 
manage to climb trees has never been ex- 
plained ; but we know that snakes climb, and it 
would seem quite as difficult for a snake as a 
fish that can creep on the dry land. We know 
also, that an eel can make its way over moist 
earth. There are many species of these fishes, 
and they are often caught in the damp grass 
while on their travels, and some of these are 
considered a great delicacy. They are known 
as the Climbing Perch, and walking fish. 



Page 20 



INTELLIGENCE OF SEALS 



Of all the animals that pretend to locomotion 
on land, the seal appears the least adapted. Its 
flippers are not feet, and the absence of hind 
legs render it a most helpless looking animal; 
but it shows an amazing ability not only to 
move about out of the water, but to climb, also. 
It can wiggle its way up on high rocks from the 
sea, and when tamed, can get up on a chair or 
table. They are not desirable looking pets, but 
show marked intelligence. A young seal caught 
by some fishermen became very tame and af- 
fectionate. After a time its owner, growing 
tired of it, concluded he would place it back in 
its native element. The seal was taken in a boat 
out to sea and dropped overboard. The boat- 
man hurried back to land as fast as possible, lest 
it should follow him, but had hardly secured his 
boat at the dock before the seal crawled out and 
began making a clumsy movement toward its 
old quarters. Sometime later the owner again 
gave it away, and instructed the old sailor, who 
was about to sail on a long voyage, not to drop 
it overboard until he was many miles at sea. 
That was the last seen of the seal for many 
days, and the gentleman congratulated himself 

Page 21 



that he had done a double service — he had got- 
ten rid of an undesirable pet, and had given a 
dumb animal its liberty. But he was badly 
mistaken; the animal was far from dumb, and 
he was not rid of its presence, for one morning 
after a very cold and stormy night, on opening 
his door, there lay the seal on the step, dead. 
The poor creature had found its way through 
weary miles of ocean travel back to its old home, 
only to die at the end of the long journey, for 
arriving in the night, it had found no friend to 
aid it, and whether it died from hunger or from 
cold none could tell. 

A few years ago some fishermen were follow- 
ing their vocation, off harbor on the Maine 
coast, when they observed a commotion on the 
surface, and soon saw a seal leaping from the 
water as if pursued by some enemy. Swimming 
near the boat, the men saw it was pursued by a 
swordfish. Dropping his line, one of the men 
leaned over his boat and held out his hands ; to 
his amazement the seal immediately dashed 
toward him, and with his help scrambled into 
the boat, just as the swordfish rushed by, its 
big eyes apparently wide open in wonder at the 
sudden disappearance of its prey. The boatmen 
were so impressed with the seal's intelligence 
and confidence that they kept it as a pet, and. it 
became a familiar object on shore. At another 
time, a crew of fishermen caught a young seal, 
and for several days they were followed by its 

Page 22 



mother, who kept up a continued wailing for 
her lost baby. The kind-hearted sailors were 
so deeply impressed by her sorrow that they re- 
fused to kill the little one, but put it back in the 
water, when the two immediately went happily 
off together. Seals that have been tamed have 
been taught many amusing tricks, like dogs. 
They will climb out on a platform, sit on a 
chair, and dive off a high perch into the water 
for fish that are thrown to them. 



Page 28 



SOME WRENS THAT I HAVE KNOWN 



The little brown wren is one of the most in- 
teresting of our small birds. It seems to be 
always in a great hurry, and seldom is still for 
a minute, except when singing, and it sings just 
like it works — with all its might. The mother 
bird likes to build her nest near, or inside of a 
house, and will become very tame. Now, that 
the English sparrow has become so numerous, 
these small birds have little chance to nest any- 
where that a sparrow can find. But if they 
can secure a place inside of a porch or an out- 
building, they can be protected from these foes. 

After some weeks' absence from home, we 
found on returning that a wren had built under 
on upturned bucket, left on a shelf in an out- 
kitchen. She had access to the building througn 
a broken pane of glass. A door from another 
part of the house opened just by this shelf. We 
were careful for a few days on going in and out 
not to disturb the little bird as she came and 
went, and she grew very tame. While setting, 
I at one time took a straw and touched her on 
the back. She did not fly, but only settled down 
a little closer in her nest. She hatched her 
brood, but a few days later a rat destroyed the 

Page 2U 



nest and killed the young. For many days the 
little bird would come in through the broken 
pane of glass with a bug in her mouth, and cry 
for her lost babies. 

On another occasion I placed a box in a tree 
near the window. But the sparrows were de- 
termined to take it. After several had been 
killed they left it, and a wren built her nest. 
No sooner than this occurred the sparrows re- 
turned to the fight. There were many small 
blighted apples under the tree, and the moment 
I heard the commotion among the birds I pelted 
the sparrows out of the tree with the apples. 
The wrens seemed to understand my intention, 
for they learned to remain in the tree while 
I pelted the sparrows out, and the moment the 
coast was clear they set up the most beautiful 
and triumphant song. But the persistent spar- 
rows would come in the early morning before we 
had risen. I then placed some apples for use 
on the window-sill, and raising the win- 
dow, would drive the wicked intruders 
away. It finally became quite apparent 
that the wrens regarded me as their pro- 
tector, for the moment a sparrow came in 
sight they would begin to call most vociferously, 
and I had only to show myself in the yard and 
they would hastily retreat; and it was most 
touching to hear those wrens sing their thanks. 
When they understood that they had only to 
call me to be helped out of all danger from their 

Page 25 



enemy, they did not pretend to fight any more, 
but simply cried for their friend. The sparrows 
at last found it too dangerous to longer meddle, 
and the little wrens hatched out their brood of 
eight babies. Now they were in a new trouble, 
that at the time I supposed would certainly 
prove fatal. When ready to leave the box, 
though only about as big as the end of one's 
forefinger, the little birds one at a time crept 
out, and each in turn tumbled down to the 
ground. There were so many cats in the neigh- 
borhood, that I concluded there was no hope for 
saving the baby wrens. Heavy grass was all 
around the tree, and I tried to catch the little 
birds and help them out of their dilemma. But 
not a bird could I find. I might as well have 
been looking for living mice. I gave it up, and 
from my window watched to see what would 
happen next. Mother wren understood the sit- 
uation perfectly, for she soon came down to the 
root of a large fir tree that stood near, and be- 
gan to call; one by one the baby birds came to 
her and followed her up the body of the tree, 
sticking to the trunk like mice, hopping along, 
stopping occasionally to rest, while the mother 
waited for them. One at a time was thus taken 
far up into the branches, the mother returning 
after each trip to the same place for the next 
baby. Why they came out of the grass one at 
a time, just as she wanted them, I never could 
understand; but it may be she had a name for 

Page 26 



each one and called the baby she wanted; any- 
way, they came to her one at a time, and in this 
way I had an opportunity to carefully count 
them. The last one gave her a great deal of 
trouble. It seems there must always be one 
"black sheep" in each family, even of birddom. 
This little fellow was stubborn, or lazy, or tired, 
or weak, for after going about two feet from 
the ground, he perched on a knot and refused to 
go any farther. Mother wren coaxed and talked 
to him, showed him just how to hop, going up 
and down the trunk, but it was all no use. He 
would not budge; then she went away and left 
him for some minutes. She returned with a 
bug in her beak, and would come so near him 
that he could almost get it, and then she would 
disappoint him and hop away. She repeated 
this many times, but the naughty baby would 
not move. At last she dropped the bug 
and began to flutter around him and scold as 
only mothers can. But he would not move. 
When her patience seemed exhausted, she flew 
down on the ground, hopped up under him and 
fluttered him loose from the tree; then he had 
to take a new hold on the bark or fall off. When 
he stopped hopping upward, she would repeat 
the process, and in this way she drove him up 
with the rest. Whether she spanked him after 
she got him up the tree, or not, I do not know, 
but he deserved it. But like all patient mothers, 
this little wren mother did not give up her baby, 

Page 27 



if he was naughty. For many days we saw 
these happy birds playfully hopping about in 
the boughs of the big tree, while the parents fed 
them. And I have no doubt these thankful 
wrens, if alive the next year, came back looking 
for their friend, who would again help them to 
fight their enemies, and rear their family. But 
a change to another locality had taken their 
friend away, and it is doubtful if they ever 
could build there again. 



Page 28 



LOVE AND SORROW OF ANIMALS 



Everywhere among the lower order of animal 
life we see displayed the same sentiments of 
love, sorrow and fear, that are exhibited in the 
human race. A cow will refuse to go with the 
herd, and without food, will stand all day just 
outside of the inclosure where her calf is con- 
fined, and bawl most piteously. Birds have been 
known to stand, apparently in sorrow, over the 
dead bodies of their mates. Even snakes have 
been seen to show this attachment, refusing to 
leave the dead bodies of their companions. There 
are few living things that will not risk their own 
lives for their young. Even the most domestic 
and timid animals often become enraged and 
dangerous when their young are attacked. An 
old cat, perfectly tame and a pet, was lying in 
a yard passed by a street with no fence between. 
Kittens as large as full-grown rats were tumb- 
ling over each other in their play, while the 
mother was dreamily watching. Any one could 
play with and handle her kittens, without at- 
tracting her attention. One day a small boy 
passing, playfully picked up a kitten and started 
up the street. Instantly the old cat bristled up, 
jumped to her feet and started after the boy. 

Page 29 



When he had gone nearly a block, the enraged 
mother was at his heels, and it so frightened 
him that he threw down the kitten and ran. Im- 
mediately the mother and kitten marched back 
to the yard in triumph. A mother mare has 
been known to beat off a grizzly bear which was 
approaching her colt, by dexteriously keeping 
the young colt behind her, and vigorously kick- 
ing the bear in the snout. Dogs, refusing to 
leave the grave of their dead masters, have been 
known to die on the grave. Dogs often show 
shame. A little terrier grew too noisy about 
the home of a city gentleman and was given to 
a friend several miles in the country. A week 
later the little terrier was seen outside of the 
city gentleman's back-yard gate, quietly peep- 
ing in, but evidently ashamed to enter. The dog 
knew that something unusual had happened. 
He had been given away because he was not 
wanted, and now having returned without an 
invitation, he was ashamed to come in; but 
when he was called he came bounding into the 
house with his old enthusiasm. 

In one of the city parks a squirrel was noticed 
one day running up and down a tree, chattering 
in the greatest excitement. Finally the animal 
appeared on a branch holding in its paws the 
severed head of its mate, over which it was 
whining most pitifully. On investigation it was 
ascertained that the dead squirrel had been 
caught and actually decapitated by a limb split 

Page 30 



off from the tree in a storm the night before. 
All day the grief -stricken mate would not aban- 
don the body, but continued to mourn over it, 
and carry the head about, in evident sorrow. 

Birds have been seen likewise, sitting by their 
dead mates and crying for hours, while mother- 
birds will continue for days to carry food to the 
place where their nests and young have been de- 
stroyed, chirping, and crying all the time. All 
animal life appears, from these instances, to be 
actuated by the same impulses, and to be moved 
by the same sentiments. 



Page 31 



AN ANGRY ELEPHANT AND A TREACH- 
EROUS LION 



"Speaking of escapes from death, recalls my 
experience with the murderous elephant, Rom- 
eo. Had I been a little slower in my movements, 
I would have been his eighth victim," said Col. 
Rice, reflectively. "One day I was directing the 
arrangement of some canvasmen, and unwit- 
tingly ventured a couple of steps backward and 
within reach of the death-dealing elephant, 
which at once raised his trunk slowly with the 
purpose of giving me a settler. He would have 
succeeded in killing me had not a young ele- 
phant trumpeted an alarm, and like lightning I 
at once sprang forward and out of danger, by 
such a small distance that on the back of my 
head I felt the wind descend by his passing 
trunk. After that experience, Romeo was kept 
always chained by all four legs. The young 
elephant who had saved me was rewarded by 
candy. 

"It is strange that subsequently I essayed the 
role of lion-tamer, and under the able tutelage 
of Franconelli, the best lion-tamer I ever saw, 
and who, by the way, met his death in a lion's 
den in the city of Havana, sometime later. After 

Page 82 



having twice accompanied the fearless Francon- 
elli into the den of Richard III, the largest and 
fiercest lion ever exhibited in this country, at 
Vincennes, Indiana, I then determined to enter 
the den of this beast alone. Clad in tinsel and 
spangles, at the afternoon performance, amid an 
outburst of music by the band, I boldly ap- 
proached the lion's cage, opened the barred door, 
and entered, unarmed. The great brute was ly- 
ing at the further end of the cage, and seemed 
not to notice my . presence, other than by a 
glance of sullen indifference; so that I deemed 
my first attempt at entering a lion's den a suc- 
cess. But my assurance was a little premature ; 
and it was fortunate for me that beneath the 
cage was a furnace in which glowed red-hot iron 
rods and trusty attendants at hand to effectively 
wield them upon the lion, if necessity demand- 
ed. After a three minutes stay in the den, I 
made a parting salute to the breathless audience 
and prepared to leave the cage. As I backed to- 
ward the door, to my horror I observed that the 
lion was slowly rising from the floor and prepar- 
ing to spring upon me. Almost overcome by 
the grave danger of my situation, I contrived to 
signal the attendants to thrust the heated rods 
between me and the enraged beast. Scarcely had 
I done so, when the great tawny creature hurled 
himself upon me, and burying his claws in my 
shoulder, bore me to the floor. I felt his hot 
breath in my face as he opened his huge jaws 

Page 33 



preparatory to sinking his fangs in my throat. 
A horrible death seemed but a brief second dis- 
tant, when the red-hot irons were brought into 
play and used so effectively that the blood- 
thirsty brute was forced to retreat to the far 
end of his den without inflicting further injury 
upon me. I was hastily drawn from the cage, 
none the worse for my thrilling experience, 
while the band played, 'See, the Conquering 
Hero Comes/ and a panic in the audience was 
thus narrowly averted." 



Page 34 



NEST-BUILDING FISHES 



When June comes, with her listless days and 
first intimations of Summer, the dace, which 
have arrived at fit age for matrimonial duties, 
look about for a proper place to locate their nur- 
sery. A running brook and shallow water are 
chosen, and soon a place is cleared in the gravel 
at the bottom, two feet in diameter. Here a 
layer of eggs is deposited and then the male ap- 
pears with a pebble in his mouth, which is 
placed in the center of the clearing. Both fish 
now keep up the work until the layer of eggs 
is covered. Then another layer of eggs is de- 
posited and covered, and so on, until a pile some- 
times pyramidal, sometimes domeshaped, is con- 
structed eight inches high. When the eggs are 
hatched and have become tiny dace, their for- 
mer habitation is destroyed and swept down the 
stream. 

The Lamprey eel is another animal of peculiar 
habits. Living in both fresh and salt water, 
they always seek fresh water in which to de- 
posit their eggs. It is a curious sight while these 
eels are preparing their nests. These are built 
of stones, some of considerable size and weight ; 
when the size of the fish is considered. Often 

Page 85 



these nests are raised to a height of about three 
feet, with a diameter of about four feet. The 
eggs are deposited in the spaces between the 
stones, and thus the little wiggling babies which 
come without teeth or eyesight, are amply pro- 
tected. These stones are moved in a curious 
way. The eels go above the locality selected, 
and fastening themselves to stones selected, by 
the suction of the mouth, raise their tails in the 
current and are thus carried a short distance 
down stream, when the hold is released and they 
take a new suction. This they continue, going 
backward down stream until the nest is reached. 
If the stone is particularly heavy, two eels will 
lay hold of it and help each other. 

One of the most curious of all the fish nest- 
builders, is the Placket, of Siam. It is known to 
the scientist as the Paradise fish. The natives 
have them as pets as we do the gold-fish, and 
often train them to fight. When these fishes 
build their nests, no hard material is used. The 
male fish rises to the surface and sucks in the 
air; this he carries down below the surface and 
it is ejected with a mucus he secrets in the 
mouth. In this mucus is deposited the eggs. 
It rises again to the surface like a bubble. The 
process is repeated many times until a floating 
mass of bubbles is secured. The mucus and 
material of this blubber-nest forms the food of 
the young fry as they are hatched. When the 
nest has been eaten up, the young are then old 

Page 36 



enough to search for food in other places. There 
are many other curious nest-building fishes, 
having the same general characteristics. Some 
fish seem to build for others, more weak than 
themselves. A curious fish of Brazil, resemb- 
ling our common catfish, affords a home in the 
cavities of its capacious mouth for several kinds 
of small fishes. Many crabs live in such ani- 
mated homes. The common oyster often dis- 
closes an inhabitant quietly living within its 
shell. One species of shell found in Northern 
waters affords a home for two little crabs about 
the size of a chestnut. The Giant clam, which 
sometimes attains a weight of five hundred 
pounds, gives shelter in its folds for many 
crabs, one of which is always found with it. The 
shells of this immense clam often measure five 
feet in length, and are put to a variety of uses, 
occasionally serving as natural cradles for the 
children of Eastern lands. 



Page 37 



A RAM THAT COULD RUN THE CHURN 



Dick was a big pet ram owned by a New York 
farmer. He would not go with the other sheep, 
but seemed to feel too high-toned. He kept 
company with the cows entirely. Whether this 
was because he had been taught to bring them 
up from the pasture when they were tardy, or 
because he had been taught to churn the milk 
into butter, was never known, but anyway, he 
preferred to browse with them and utterly ig- 
nored the company of other sheep. The far- 
mer's big churn had a dasher connected with 
a large wheel outside of the dairy which Dick 
was taught to turn by tramping it. As the but- 
ter would form, the wheel would turn harder, 
and then Dick would tramp with a will, and 
bleat all the time ; he seemed to understand that 
the harder the wheel turned the nearer he was 
through with his job, and for this reason would 
rush things. When done, he would jump off 
the wheel and lie down for a nap; but if he 
heard a cow low he was away for the pasture in 
an instant to see what was the matter. He 
would churn one hundred and twenty quarts of 
cream at a time. The farmer had twenty-five 
cows, and these Dick took to the pasture every 

Page 38 



morning, and brought them home each evening. 
It was noticed in the mornings he was quite 
frisky, and did not seem at all in a hurry ; but 
would allow the cows to loiter along and eat as 
they went, but at night he was always in a great 
hurry and would not permit of any lagging. If 
one stopped and got behind the rest of the herd, 
Dick would promptly remind her by a good butt 
that she must keep up. If when the time came 
for the herd to go home one was missing or out 
of sight, Dick would not start until he had 
found her and brought her along. He acted 
very much as the shepherd's dog acts among 
the sheep. He knew his business and always 
faithfully performed his duty. He was the full 
boss of the barnyard and would strut around as 
if he managed the whole business of the farm. 
But he would not brook any interference, es- 
pecially from a stranger. If any one he did not 
fancy attempted to be familiar with him, he 
soon stopped that by giving them such a butting 
that they were glad to leave him alone in all his 
glory. But he had one great weakness. He was 
deeply in love with the farmer's wife, and usual- 
ly she could do anything she chose with him. 
When he first began to churn he did not like it, 
and would sometimes sulk, stop the wheel, and 
refuse to go on. At these times he would show in 
his eye that he was ready to fight. No one but the 
farmer's wife would dare go to him then, but 
she would go, and if he still refused to work 

Page 39 



after she had petted him a little, she would give 
him a morsel of something to eat, and this al- 
ways conquered him. Of course, he was the pet 
of the whole family, and harmless when in a good 
humor ; but like some boys, when he had a pout- 
ing spell he was dangerous. Then, with his 
great horns he could butt his head through a 
half -inch board, and if that butting happened to 
be given in the stomach of some intruder, it 
would spoil his appetite. Dick had been taken 
when a lamb, and was like one of the family, and 
regarded as one of its most useful members. 



Page 40 



SPOT— THE STORY OF A CHIPMUNK 



For several weeks we had been camping in 
Northern Wisconsin. It was not long until many 
chipmunks began to come around our table just 
outside of our tent. The crumbs that fell while 
we were eating attracted them, and as soon as 
we were away and out of sight in the tent, they 
began to pick up the crumbs. Every time they 
heard plates rattle, after a few days, they would 
be on hand, and gradually became tamer, so that 
it was not long until they no longer waited for 
us to leave the table but would hurry for the 
crumbs right under our feet. We noticed that 
one very lively little fellow, tamer than the rest, 
was always on hand, and that he had a mark 
on his back; evidently a scar made by some 
enemy. We named him Spot. Spot became very 
tame. With a little patient training, such as 
nipping him a piece of cracker, without making 
much motion, and being very careful not to do 
anything to frighten him, he soon learned to 
eat out of our hand. But if we attempted to 
touch him he would strike with his paw. But 
he preferred to put all the food he could carry 
in the side of his jaws, and then run off a little 
way to eat it; and sometimes he would not eat 

Page kl 



it at all, but take it away and bury it. One 
day, thinking to have a little fun at Spot's. ex- 
pense, we tied a piece of cracker to a thread 
some six feet long, and holding the other end 
threw him the cracker. He put it in his mouth 
as usual, and then filled it with other pieces. 
When his cargo was ready, away he went pell- 
mell; when he reached the end of the string 
he tumbled a summersault and the food was 
all snatched out of his mouth. He thought, 
evidently, it was all an accident, and his own 
fault, for he hastily gathered it again and made 
another trial but with the same result. Now he 
seemed a little suspicious, and for a moment 
somewhat undecided, and looked at the holder 
of the string in a most uncertain and comical 
way, as if to say, "was that my fault, or yours ?" 
As everything still seemed all right, again he 
gathered his food and for the third time 
tumbled over and lost it. Now he sat down, 
looked longingly at his lost dinner, and then 
at the holder of the string, and for a little time 
seemed quite dazed. But he finally concluded 
there was something the matter with that 
cracker he had not quite fathomed, for he re- 
fused to touch the tied piece again, but hastily 
gathered the rest and continued his eating. No 
other chipmunk ever became quite as tame as 
Spot, and all the rest seemed quite jealous of 
him, because he could always get the most food. 
One day suddenly we heard a squall of terror, 

Page 42 



and saw Spot flying out of camp, fairly crying 
murder! murder! or help! help! we could not 
decide which, and right at his heels was a pine 
squirrel about twice the size of Spot, making 
him fairly fly for his life. We had not seen any 
of these squirrels in our camp, though we knew 
they were near us in the forest. But no doubt, 
these had come in also, when we did not see 
them, and now, finding Spot there they made 
battle on him, because he was stealing what 
they claimed as their food. But Spot reached 
his den in safety. This is the way, doubtless, 
he got his scar; by rough usage from some 
bully bigger than himself. 



Page b3 



CHARMED REPTILES 



Can a snake be charmed? This question has 
been asked and answered many times both in 
the affirmative and the negative. It would be 
impossible to convince some people that a 
poisonous serpent could be rendered harmless 
by this process, and it has been repeatedly as- 
serted, that if serpents do appear to become 
harmless in the hands of their tamers, it is 
only because their poisonous fangs have been 
first extracted. But this is now known to be 
an error. The genuine charmers in India do not 
depend on such imposture for their success. 
Many cases have been carefully examined which 
show positively that these serpents, handled 
without harm by their tamers, have never had 
their fangs extracted. Gen. Campbell in his 
Indian Journal gives the following account of 
a scene witnessed by him. 

"There was a dry well in the garden which 
was the favorite haunt of snakes, and in which 
I had shot several. One morning I discovered 
a large Cobra-de-Capello at the bottom of this 
well, basking in the sun ; but while I ran for my 
gun, some of the native servants began to pelt 
him with stones, and drove him into his hole 

Page Uh 



among the brick-work. I therefore sent for the 
charmers to get him out. Two of these worthies 
having arrived, we lowered them into the well 
by means of a rope. One of them, after per- 
forming sundry incantations, and sprinkling 
himself and his companion with ashes prepared 
from the dung of a sacred cow, began to play 
a shrill, monotonous ditty upon a pipe, orna- 
mented with shells, brass rings, and beads, 
while the other stood on one side of the snake's 
hole, holding a rod furnished at one end with a 
slip-noose. At first the snake, that had been 
considerably bullied before he took refuge in 
his hole, was deaf to the notes of the charmer ; 
but after half an hour's constant playing the 
spell began to operate, and the snake began 
to move. In a few minutes more he thrust out 
his head, and the horse-hair noose was dexter- 
ously slipped over it and drawn tight, and we 
hoisted up the men dangling their snake in 
triumph. Having carried him to an open space 
of ground, they released him from the noose. 
The enraged snake immediately made a rush at 
the bystanders, putting to flight a crowd of 
native servants who had assembled to witness 
the sport. The snake charmer, tapping it on 
the tail with a switch, induced the snake to 
turn upon himself, at the same moment sound- 
ing his pipe. The snake coiled up, raised its 
head, expanded its hood, and appeared about 
to strike, but, instead of doing so, remained in 

Page b5 



the same position as if fascinated by the music, 
darting out its slender forked tongue, following 
with its head the motion of the man's knee, 
which he kept moving from side to side within 
a few inches of the serpent, as if tempting it 
to bite. No sooner did the music stop, than 
the snake darted forward with such fury that 
it required great agility on the part of the man 
to avoid it, and immediately it made off as fast 
as possible. The sound of the pipe, however, 
invariably made it stop and obliged the snake 
to remain in an upright position as long as the 
man continued to play. After repeating this 
experiment several times, a fowl was placed 
within reach, which it instantly darted at and 
bit. The fowl screamed but ran off and began 
picking among its companions as if nothing had 
happened. In about half a minute its comb and 
watles began to change color and soon were 
nearly black. In two minutes it began to stagger, 
was seized with convulsions, fell to the ground, 
and in exactly three minutes and a half was 
dead. The wound on the chicken was about as 
large as the puncture of a needle. The charmer 
now showed us his method of catching snakes; 
seizing the snake by the point of the tail with 
the left hand, he slipped the right hand along 
the body with the swiftness of lightning, and 
grasping it by the throat with the finger and 
thumb, held it fast, forced it to open its jaws, 
and displayed its poisonous fangs. Having 

Page W 



satisfied my curiosity, I proposed that the snake 
should be destroyed, or at least that its fangs 
might be extracted, but this being an exceed- 
ingly fine one, the charmer was unwilling to 
extract its teeth, as the operation sometimes 
proved fatal, and begged so hard to keep it as 
it was, that at last I suffered him to put it in a 
basket and carry it away. The very best proof 
that the fangs of the reptile were not removed 
was, that some weeks afterward, it bit the 
charmer and killed him." 



Page U7 



PET CRICKETS AND GOLD BEETLES 



In Central America there is a beetle which, it 
is said, the natives confidently believe is partly 
made of gold. Its head and wings are so bril- 
liantly colored and beautifully polished that 
many of the simple-hearted inhabitants believ- 
ing it pure gold have repeatedly tried to obtain 
this precious metal by smelting the beetle. Of 
course, they never succeed, for the best of 
reasons. The beetle is not made of gold, but 
like many other things in this world not beetles, 
they only resemble it. Their adornment, like 
that of many a royal personage, and others who 
pretend to royalty, is all a deception; but this 
does not save the beetle. It suffers for its de- 
ceiving appearance, just as other deceivers in 
higher stations, who if they are not melted in 
the fire for their foolish pretending, are often 
melted under the scorn of their fellows who 
despise sham. But it must not be understood 
that all the natives of Central America believe 
this silly theory; only those who are very 
ignorant. These claim that though the smelt- 
ing processes have been often tried on the help- 
less beetle, and have always failed, the theory 
is correct, but the process in some way is at 

Page US 



fault, and that they will certainly yet find the 
gold when they hit on the right way to smelt 
it out of the bug. 

In Japan some of the inhabitants prize 
crickets and numerous other insects that sing. 
These are confined in dainty bamboo cages and 
hung about the houses. These confined in- 
sects do not seem to be disturbed by the loss 
of their liberty, possibly because well fed, and 
they sing their weird notes as if contented and 
happy. In an insect-fancier's shop can be found 
many queer and interesting things. His stock 
consists of crickets, grasshoppers, katydids, 
and other tree insects that are supposed to be 
musical. These songs, however, are not songs 
at all, but musical sounds made mechanically; 
much more like a violin performer than a 
songster. Some produce sounds by rubbing their 
legs together, while others use their wings. 
These captives are fed principally on vegetables, 
such as slices of cucumber, and fruits. Two 
or three cents is the price usually charged for 
their bugs, by these merchants, but a fine 
singer may cost much more. In this country 
one cricket in the house at a time is quite 
supply enough, since if properly located he can 
keep a whole family awake all night. The 
insect life is a most interesting one, and its 
use in the work of nature is very imperfectly 
understood by man. One of the most remark- 
able in its way, is a beetle that is said to turn 

Page 49 



into a plant. However, strictly speaking, this 
is not true. What happens is this: The larva 
of this beetle is a white grub which in the 
autumn burrows in the ground and apparently 
reappears in the following spring as a mush- 
room. The grub does not become a mushroom 
only in this, that the roots of the plant may 
absorb the grub as material for furthering its 
own growth. But all these grubs are not thus 
absorbed. Some must be left to perpetuate the 
species. 



Page 50 



A WREN THAT WAS A ROBBER 



The invalids chair sat near the window where 
she could see the flowers in the yard, and enjoy 
the sunlight. A climbing vine outside was 
clinging to the house and partly shading the 
window, and it occurred to me that it would be 
a fine place for a wren to build her nest, and 
at the same time afford a pleasant pastime to 
the sick one who could watch her employment, 
and hear her songs. A box was placed in the 
vine with the opening toward the window, and 
so near to it that if the sash was raised one 
could reach the nest. Very soon a wren took 
possession, and how the songs did ring! But 
just at the corner of the house, and only a few 
feet from the vine, stood a large maple tree. 
The wrens had not yet finished their nest when 
an English sparrow darted from the tree and 
drove them away. Several days in succession 
this occurred. The sparrow would sit in the 
maple and watch for them. I noticed this, for 
every time I went about the tree it flew out. 
I determined to stop this, but the sparrow 
seemed to understand, for when I came out 
with my sparrow-gun he immediately flew 
away. Finally I could get no sight of him at all 

Page 51 



except when he suddenly flew down viciously 
at the wrens. Fixing myself at an upper 
window that gave a good view of the top of the 
tree, I concluded to wait until he came to the 
tree and shoot him from the upper chamber, 
but after long waiting he did not appear, nor 
while I sat at the window would he disturb the 
wrens. Then all at once I made a discovery. 
The wind lifted the foliage of the tree, and 
there crouched on a large limb sat Mr. Spar- 
row watching me. He would raise his head 
as if peeping, and when the leaves moved and 
exposed him, he squatted close to the limb with 
his head almost parallel to it. I took aim at 
the spot through the leaves and the moment 
they were lifted by the breeze, fired. That 
settled the trouble with the sparrow. But this 
was not the last nor the worst. The wrens 
built, sang, and fairly romped in the vine, 
becoming so tame that they cared nothing for 
the presence of any one at the window. When 
the mother was setting, I noticed one morning 
that there were two male wrens, apparently 
discussing the situation, and that the stranger 
was the larger of the two. Later, I found them 
in the shrubbery, fighting, and one morning 
early, the mother was off the nest and calling 
for her mate with all her lung power, but he 
did not come. A few moments later the big 
wren came, went to the nest and one at a time 
threw out the eggs, and then proceeded to tear 

Page 52 



up the nest and throw it out of the vine. That 
was the last we saw of the mother or her mate. 
Whether this robber wren killed, or only drove 
off the other, we never knew, but lie destroyed 
the nest, and stole our little wren's wife, that 
was certain. We were all very sorry, for the 
two seemed so happy, and besides they added 
greatly to the interest and happiness of the 
invalid who watched them every day from the 
window. It was certainly a very mean bird 
trick; but the worst of it is, it is a trick that 
is not always confined to bird-homes. Not all 
the homes thus broken up are confined to wren- 
houses. 



Page 63 



MAMMA ELEPHANT AND HER BABY 



A gentleman has described a mother elephant 
putting her baby to bed, as he saw her in one 
of the great zoos. 

"Mamma elephant had her trunk around her 
baby's neck, and seemed to be whispering and 
encouraging him as he rubbed his head against 
her knee. He stood a moment then raised his 
head, flapped his big little ears, gave a flirt 
of his little cord of a tail, and trotted off by 
his mother's side to the center of the yard, 
and there she left him and went to a pile of 
hay that stood in a corner; this she took up 
in bunches with her trunk so nicely that she 
did not drop a whisp of it, and spread it around 
her child, who had not stirred from the spot 
where she had left him. 

"When the hay had all been spread around 
the baby, the mother stepped into the center 
and began to tread it down with her feet, the 
little one following her motions exactly, until 
a perfectly even space had been trodden down, 
then the mamma elephant stepped out again, 
went to the farther side of the yard and 
fumbled about the ground with her trunk. As 
she came back the baby flourished his small 

Page 54 



trunk, and flapped his ears, making at the 
same time a grunting sound, as if he knew what 
was coming and liked it. 

"This time the mother stood outside of the 
baby's bed, and beginning with the back of his 
ears, blew a cloud of fine dust into the folds of 
the skin behind them; then into those around 
his legs, and under him, until he was thorough- 
ly powdered for the night. This done, she 
again put her trunk about his body, the little 
fellow dropped to his knees on his carefully 
trodden bed, and after a few soft pats and 
a few soft grunts from the mother, he laid 
down as a well trained child of the elephant 
family should; the mother's work, however 
was not yet done. She took up delicately the 
hay from the edge of the bed, and began 
tossing it lightly along his sides and up toward 
his back, until his sides no longer showed. 
When all was done, the small girl who had 
warned me not to disturb the proceedings 
heaved a great sigh, and said: Td just like to 
know what they do it for!' So I told her, ex- 
plaining the habit wild animals have of tread- 
ing their beds to make sure there are no 
snakes in the grass ; the necessity of powdering 
the young, whose skin is tender in the folds, 
and who are troubled by insects ; and the piling 
of grass around them to conceal them from the 
hunter." 



Page 55 



THREE CATS THAT KNEW THEIR 
BUSINESS 



While a beautiful cat is prized about the 
home, usually, and often proves very useful in 
ridding the premises of rats and mice, they are 
not generally credited with very high intelli- 
gence, nor are they so easily taught as dogs. 
But some occasionally show that they know 
more than we give them credit for knowing. 

A large cat and a small terrier lying near 
together on a porch apparently dozing, were 
suddenly awakened by a neighbor's dog which 
stopped to investigate. The house stood on the 
street with no fence in front. In perfect good 
humor, and with an air of welcome for the 
stranger, the little terrier ran out to greet 
him. Without a moment's notice and with no 
reason whatever, the visitor sprang upon the 
terrier and began to shake him most unmerci- 
fully. Two big jumps from the porch brought 
the cat to the scene, and at the last spring it 
landed on the strange dog's back, where with 
teeth and claw it began to make the hair fly 
like snow in a snow-storm. In less than two 
seconds that dog had forgotten what he came 
for, and howling until people heard him the 

~~~~~- Page 56 



distance of a block up the street, ran like mad, 
with old Tom still riding and clawing, while the 
little terrier looked on wagging his tail. When 
the cat came back from his ride, the two, side 
by side, deliberately walked back to the porch 
as if nothing unusual had happened. But how 
people did laugh at the cat's defense of its 
little dog friend ! 

' 'Malta" was a very large and beautiful 
maltese cat, and a great pet about the house. 
When the doors were opened in the morning, 
generally he was found waiting at the door on 
the back porch to be let in. This was always 
expected and never thought strange; but one 
morning coming in the door as usual, he acted 
quite differently from his usual manner. In- 
stead of going on to the kitchen for his break- 
fast as he was expected to do, he stopped at 
the door, began to mew, rub against his mis- 
tress, walk round and round, look up into her 
face, and then go back to the closed door. This 
conduct was repeated so long, that it became 
quite evident he had something to tell. His 
mistress opened the door and followed the cat 
out, and along the porch until he came to the 
farther end, and there, laid side by side, were 
two big rats, which he had caught during the 
night, and arranged for this exhibition. What 
Malta wanted to tell was now so apparent that 
had he been a child he could not have made 
it plainer: "See what I have done." He was 

Pace 57 



carried into the house in royal style, and given 
a big breakfast. 

"It was our old barn cat which proved to me 
that animals reason," began my neighbor, "and 
she was a very cross cat that never cared to 
make friends with anybody. I encountered her 
whenever I went out to feed my chickens, and 
no kind words or attempts at caressing ever 
met with any response from her. But one 
night, just before dusk, as I was feeding my 
chickens, she came up to me and purred and 
rubbed herself against my dress. I thought 
it was strange, especially as she followed me 
into the house, and when I sat down she 
jumped into my lap and looked up into my 
face with a look of entreaty, and a mewing 
that sounded as if she were unfolding the 
troubles of her heart to me. When I got out 
of my chair a few moments afterwards she 
kept running across the floor in front of me, 
and coming back every few steps as if to lead 
me on. I went out of doors with her, and she 
led me to the barn. 

"She seemed to be in great distress and 
kept looking up to the hay-mow. What is it, 
old cat?' I asked. She answered me with a 
purr and mew. I cast my eyes up to the hay- 
mow and saw my persistent old hen sitting on 
the hay in the corner. I had been trying for 
a fortnight to 'break her up/ for it was too 

Page 58 



late in the season to have a brood of chickens 
to care for. 

"I had not thought that she was connected 
at all with the old cat and her troubled condi- 
tion, but I called the man to come into the 
barn and told him to climb up on the mow 
and take that hen off. But before he could 
get there the old cat had climbed up and 
began striking the hen with her paw, and the 
hen when she was struck first on one side of 
her head and then on the other, pecked the 
cat, and shrieked out at her as only hens can. 
The man lifted the hen, and lo and behold, 
there were three little kittens brought to view. 
The mother cat quickly let us know to whom 
they belonged, and quietly curled herself up 
with them. 

"She had evidently been cuffed by the hen, 
which had taken her darlings from her, and 
fearing the assault of her sharp beak had come 
to me for help." Isn't this reason? If not, 
what is it? 



Page 59 



MME. PATTPS LOST PARROT 



Mme. Patti's parrot was named Koko, and on 
his golden collar, in Spanish, was engraven, 
"I am Koko, the polyglot parrot of the Nicolini. 
I don't sing myself, but there are angel voices 
in our family." 

On one of the singer's voyages, Koko was 
lost at sea, and this is the way it happened: 
Wearing his collar as usual, Koko was on the 
shoulder of his mistress in the deck saloon of 
the steamship Ionic, homeward bound. The 
lee door of the saloon was open, and some 
children suddenly opening a door on the wind- 
ward side and coming in with a rush, startled 
the bird from his perch. Not much accustomed 
to use his wings, and caught in the current 
of wind, he was swept out of the saloon, and 
despite all efforts to save him, carried away 
from the vessel and helplessly adrift at sea. 
Sorrowfully his mistress watched him strug- 
gling in the wind, until out of sight, and all 
hope was given up of ever seeing Koko again. 
This happened in August, 1888. The morning 
after this accident, the Lapwing, an American 
bark, sailing from Rio to Baltimore, found the 
tired lost Koko perched on the mizzen mast, 

Page 60 



exhausted and speechless. He was brought 
down, and under the tender care of the captain's 
wife soon regained his lost voice. He remained 
in his new quarters sailing the seas. Some 
months after this, the Lapwing was on a 
voyage from the Chinese seas to New York. 
Somewhere south of the Cape of Good Hope 
the captain met an American Whaling vessel, 
which asked for fresh provisions and news. A 
boat was sent from the Lapwing with the needed 
supplies, and in exchange the whaler threw into 
the boat a file of the New York Herald for 
1888. These papers were all thumbed and 
nearly worn out ; but as the wife of the captain 
of the Lapwing was carelessly turning them 
over, she caught the headline, "Mme. Patti's 
Koko Lost at Sea." Up to this time neither 
the captain of the vessel nor his wife knew to 
whom the bird belonged, for they did not asso- 
ciate the family name Nicolini, engraved on the 
bird's collar, with the one by which the great 
singer is known to the public. But on reaching 
New York the mystery was at once solved. 
Ascertaining the locality of Mme. Patti, through 
a friend about to sail on the Lucania, Koko 
again set sail, and after an uneventful voyage 
to England was restored to his delighted owner. 



Page 61 



TRADES FOLLOWED BY ANIMALS, BIRDS, 
FISHES AND INSECTS 



The Beaver is an architect, builder, and 
wood-cutter; it cuts down trees, erects houses 
and dams. The Marmot is a civil engineer; 
it not only builds houses, but constructs aque- 
ducts and drains to keep them dry. The Rat 
is a burglar ; it digs into people's cellars, gnaws 
through doors, petitions and windows, and 
steals. The Dog is a policeman; he guards the 
premises, and catches the Rat burglars. Pussy 
is the watchman; she watches for the Mice. 
The Horse is a farmer; he plants and attends 
the crops. The Cow is a dairy-maid; she looks 
after the milk, the butter and cheese. The 
Steer and the Porker run the commissary de- 
partment. Wolves and Jackals and many 
others, are hunters. The Squirrel is a ferry- 
man; with a piece of bark for a boat, and his 
tail for a sail, he can cross a stream. The Bear 
and the Heron are fishermen. The Monkey is 
a rope-dancer. The Mole is a meteorologist. 
The Eel is an electrician, he carries a battery. 
The Nautilus is a navigator; he raises and 
lowers his sail, casts and weighs anchor, and 
performs other nautical acts. 

Page 62 



Bees are geometricians. They construct 
cells so that with the least quantity of material 
they have the largest spaces, and least possible 
loss of interstices. Wasps are paper manu- 
facturers. Caterpillers and Spiders are silk- 
spinners. The Tailor-Bird is a tailor; he sews 
together a leaf to construct his nest. The 
Woodpecker is a woodman; he bores into trees. 
The Duck, Goose, Swan and Sea-Gulls are 
sailors. The English Sparrow is a bully; he is 
a prize-fighter; he delights in battle and is a 
selfish, overbearing, swaggering bully. The 
Parrot is a reporter, and family gossip. The 
Crow and Buzzard, are scavengers. The King- 
fisher, Fishhawk and the Herrons are fisher- 
men. The Mocking-bird is a ventriloquist, and 
imitator. The Eagle is a butcher. Whole 
regiments of birds are musicians. Ants are 
soldiers and slave owners. The Mink is a 
a pirate. Flies, Knats, and Mosquitoes, are 
hoboes, beggars, and burglars. The Firefly is 
a slight of hand performer. The Wood-rat an 
antique collector, and the Coyote a complain- 
ing sneak-thief. Snakes are hypnotists; they 
charm birds. 



Page 63 



STRANGE HABITS OF ANTS 



There are many kinds of ants, and they do 
many strange things. They live in colonies or 
societies, and work as orderly as if they all 
understood the constitution under which they 
have agreed to live, and no doubt they do; but 
just how they communicate to each other has 
never been ascertained. Like the Honey-bees, 
they live together in three separate classes, 
composed of the males, the females, and the 
neuters. The neuters are the workers, and 
some of these also act as soldiers and guards. 
Only the males and the females have wings, 
and these only in the mating season. After 
this is past the wings of the females are re- 
moved by the males, to keep them from desert- 
ing the home. It has been noticed also that in 
some instances the females remove their own 
wings. Perhaps this is done as a greater con- 
venience, or to remove the temptation to 
desert. In the winter months most ant col- 
onies remain dormant, and eat nothing, though 
it is claimed that some species provide their 
winter food during the summer months. They 
live chiefly on sweets, and this they get largely 
from another insect called the aphis. This is 

Page 6h 



a plant insect, which ants hunt, eagerly seek- 
ing the honey-dew they leave on the leaves of 
plants and trees. The ant is said to milk these 
insects like the milk-maid milks her cows, and 
sometimes two ants will fight over the posses- 
sion of a particular aphis. They carry the 
aphis to their homes and keep them as their 
food supply, the aphis breeding among the 
ants, and thus affording a continued commis- 
sary within their own homes. 

The Honey-ants of Arizona, and New Mexico 
have certain members of the colony that 
secret honey in their bodies until they can no 
longer walk. They become so extended that 
they resemble a round grape, the small head 
looking like the grape-stem. Other members 
of the colony place these in cells as prisoners, 
and keep them for food, when food from other 
sources fails. These fattened ants are thus 
devoured by their cannibal relatives. The 
Amazon ants, are terrific fighters, and make 
long journeys in great bodies for war pur- 
poses. When they have subdued another col- 
ony they carry off the eggs and the young 
ants and carefully attend to these, rearing 
the young in captivity for slaves. Like all 
slave-holders these Amazons become lazy, make 
their slaves do most of the work, and when 
tired on a journey the slave must carry his 
master. It is claimed by worthy writers that 
some species never sleep; but work day and 

Page 65 



night without ceasing, and that others plant 
and cultivate a kind of grass-seed that they 
attend, and at the proper season harvest and 
store away for future use. Others construct 
regular highways, and pave them. In their 
battles thousands on both sides are killed. If 
night comes on before the battle is won, both 
sides abandon the field, return to their homes, 
and renew the contest the next day, and con- 
tinue from day to day until the battle is won. 
When travelling they select small sticks and 
grass with which they build bridges across 
little rivulets, or if these are too large for this 
plan, they sometimes rush bodily into the 
stream until their dead bodies form an ob- 
struction, when the remaining portion of the 
colony pass safely over on the dead bodies of 
their companions. In some countries, they 
have occasionally become so numerous as to 
threaten human life, killing small animals and 
destroying crops, by eating into the roots of 
vegetation. History records that in one in- 
stance, in the Island of Grenada, a certain 
species of ant descended from the hills in such 
immense numbers that they threatened the 
lives of the natives. Rats, mice and reptiles 
were killed and eaten, and even birds did not 
always escape. The ants so annoyed the birds 
when feeding on the ground that they could not 
procure the necessary food, and in some cases 
they became so weak as to be unable to resist 

Page 66 



the attacks of the insects. Even fires built to 
arrest the invasion did not succeed, as the ants 
came in such numbers that they put out the 
fires. Twenty thousand pounds Sterling were 
offered for a remedy, but none was ever fur- 
nished. In 1780 relief came in a great hurri- 
cane that deluged the ant homes with water 
to such an extent that this pest was removed. 



Page 67 



FLYING FISH AND FLYING ANIMALS 



Most people know that there are flying fish, 
and have heard of if they have never seen, a 
flying squirrel. But many do not know that 
there are several kinds of fish that fly and 
several animals besides the squirrel; and most 
do not know that these fishes and animals do 
not fly at all, but simply sail a little way on the 
air like a parachute, or a boy's kite. The bat 
is an exception. It is a flyer, just like a bird, 
and is both bird and animal; strictly speaking, 
it is a connecting link between them. Flying 
fishes are a small family, some of them capable 
of jumping out of the water and sailing only 
a few feet, when they again drop into it; but 
others are said to be capable of sailing one 
hundred yards or more before they fall. These 
jumps from the water occur sometimes because 
followed by their enemies, and this effort is 
made to avoid them ; but travelers have noticed 
them in hurried flight, skipping over the sur- 
face of the ocean in great schools, apparently 
in play. Sometimes one jumps on the deck of 
a ship, and is captured; they cannot fly except 
from the surface of the water. 

Besides these, there is the flying dragon, an 

Page 68 



animal belonging to the lizard class. The flying 
fox; also called the Kelong, a large bat found 
in Japan, Australia, East India, Africa, and 
South America. Some of these have wings 
that spread five and a half feet. Then there 
is the flying lemurs, and the flying opossum. 
These last are found in New Guinea and Au- 
stralia. They differ greatly in size, some being 
no larger than an ordinary mouse. All animals 
of this class simply sail from some elevated 
place from which they spring, spreading out 
their legs. None have wings, but only a thin 
membrane stretching from the fore to the hind 
feet, along the sides of the animal. Birds and 
bats are the only things that have a spinal 
column — a back bone — and that fly as a bird. 
The flying squirrel, though not now very com- 
mon, is still found throughout North America. 
Its usual method of travel is to run up the 
body of a tree, and when reaching a high point, 
jump off and sail toward the body of another 
tree. If this tree is some distance away, it will 
strike it near the ground, again run up and 
jump as before. If there is no tree within 
reach of its ability to sail, it strikes the ground 
then runs to the nearest one, and repeats the 
experiment, until it reaches its desired destin- 
ation. The same method is resorted to by all 
these so-called flying animals. This squirrel, 
like the ordinary woods gray squirrel, lives on 
nuts and buds, but it will kill small animals 

Page 69 



also, which the gray squirrels do not. Flying 
squirrels are easily tamed, and make amusing 
pets. A boy has been known to have one con- 
stantly in his side-pocket, fastened to his coat 
button-hole by a small chain, similar to a watch 
chain. He would take it out at school and else- 
where, to the great amusement of his compan- 
ions, and the annoyance of his teachers. These 
little animals live in holes in dead trees, and 
move about only at night, except when dis- 
turbed. 



Page 70 



HOW MOTHERS ARE SOMETIMES 
TREATED 



A gentleman traveling in the west tells the 
following story of a mother shepherd dog. 

"The best of these dogs are worth two 
hundred dollars apiece, or even more. One 
herder showed us a very pretty one that he 
said he would not sell for five hundred dollars. 
At that time she had five little puppies. The 
night we arrived we visited his camp, and were 
greatly interested in the little mother and her 
nursing babies. Amid those wild, vast moun- 
tains, this little nest of motherly devotion and 
baby trust, was very beautiful. While we were 
examining, the assistant herder came to say 
that there were more than twenty sheep miss- 
ing. Two male dogs, both larger than the 
little mother, with their hands in their 
breeches, were standing about doing nothing. 
But the herder said, neither Tom nor Dick 
would find the sheep, and that Flora must go. 
It was urged by the assistant that her foot was 
sore and that she had been hard at work all 
day, was nearly worn out, and must feed her 
babies. But the boss insisted that she must go. 
The sun was just setting. There was no time 

Page 71 



to lose. Flora was called and told to hunt for 
lost sheep, while her master pointed to a great 
forest, through the edge of which they had 
passed on their way up. She raised her head, 
but seemed very loth to leave her babies. The 
boss called sharply to her. She slowly rose 
looking tired and low spirited, with head and 
tail down, and trotted wearily off toward the 
forest. I said : 'That's too bad V 

" 'She will be right back, she is lightning on 
stray sheep/ said the boss. 

"The next morning I went over to learn 
where Flora found the strays. While we were 
speaking, the sheep were returning driven by 
a little dog, who did not raise her head nor wag 
her tail, even when spoken to, but crawled to 
her puppies and lay down by them. She had 
been out all night, and while her hungry babies 
were tugging away, she fell asleep. I have 
never seen anything so touching. So far as 
I was concerned, 'there was not a dry eye in 
the house/ 

"How often that scene comes back to me. 
The vast, gloomy forest, and that little creature 
with a sore foot, and her heart crying for her 
babies, limping and creeping about in the wild 
canons all through the long dark hours, finding 
and gathering in the lost sheep. There are 
other than dog mothers who often have like 
fare. The dog stands for fidelity and sacrifice, 
and we have heard it said that the best part 
of a human being is the dog in him." 

Page 72 



HAUNTS AND HABITS OF THE SEA OTTER 



The sea otter is now a very rare animal. In 
the places where these f urbearing animals once 
were found in large numbers they are now ab- 
sent never to return. What few still remain 
to be hunted by the seeker of rare furs are 
found only in the far north, and about the 
Aelutian Islands. They are a very shy ani- 
mal and as they live almost entirely on the 
water, and are never, or very seldom, seen on 
land, they are hard to capture. There are two 
varieties — the deep sea variety, and a shore 
variety. But it is the deep sea otter that is 
chiefly hunted. These come ashore rarely ex- 
cept during storms. They are large, with very 
handsome and valuable fur. The land variety 
are called by the hunters, "rock-hobblers." 
Some of these large animals have been killed 
weighing 175 pounds. The pelt from these in 
some instances has measured nearly two feet 
in width, and eight feet in length. Occasionally 
one is caught, known as a silver-tip, with the 
ends of the fur a silvery color. With the ex- 
ception of the Albino, this is the most valuable 
fur in the world. The Albino otter is very 
rarely secured. 

Page 73 



The body of the sea otter measures from 
three and one-half to four feet in length. They 
are provided with strong legs and feet with 
short claws. Their fore legs are used chiefly 
in securing food — shell fish and mussels from 
the rocks. Their hind feet they use only for 
swimming. They swim and sleep on their 
back on the water. When sleeping, their fore 
feet are placed over their eyes, and their hind 
feet stick up in the air, and at a distance are 
often mistaken for two ducks swimming side 
by side. There are usually two traveling to- 
gether; but never in close company. The 
mother swimming on her back carries the 
young otter in her arms on her breast, and 
often plays with it like a human mother plays 
with her babe, tossing it into the air, and 
catching it as it falls. She sings it to sleep 
with a purring sort of sound. The young re- 
main with the mother until grown, which is 
from eighteen months to two years. Then it 
sheds its puppy coat, and gets its real fur and 
this is not shed again like other animals, but 
continues to come out and grow in, so that its 
fur is good at all seasons of the year. When 
the three traveling together wish to go on 
shore, or on the ice, the male gets out first and 
then hauls up the pup by its fore arms, and 
drags it to a place of safety. If the sea is 
rough or there is danger in landing, the mother 
remains on the wave and tosses the pup out to 

Page 7h 



the male who catches it just as a boy catches 
a ball. 

It has often been remarked that the sea otter 
acts much like a human mother with her babe. 
When she dives in search of food she leaves her 
babe asleep on its back; sometimes a sea-gull 
discovers it, and pecking at it turns it over. 
In this position it cannot keep its nose above 
water and soon drowns. When the mother 
returns and finds it she picks it up in her fore 
paws, shakes it and holds it up to her ear as 
if listening for its heart beat. When satisfied 
it is dead she abandons it with a weird sad 
cry and goes away. They never swim on their 
bellies except sometimes when attacked, or in 
great danger. When diving they can stay under 
water from ten to thirty minutes, and will then 
sometimes travel two miles before again coming 
to the surface. They come ashore chiefly in 
time of storm, and are very clumsy on the ice 
or on the land. Sleeping on the rocks they 
curl up like a fox and are then hard to kill if 
struck, because of a thick coat of fur, and 
would easily struggle into the water and escape. 
The natives hunt them in stormy weather, 
slipping along the rocky coast with very light 
skin canoes, while the roaring sea overcomes 
all other noises and the otter can thus be 
easily approached. The hunter carries a club 
and a light stick. Finding the otter asleep, he 
tickles it with the light stick until it changes 

Page 75 



its position, to see what has happened, when it 
is at once killed by a stroke on the head. 

Th^y are great fighters. After day-break 
they awake with a great noise, shake them- 
selves, and slide into the water. The pups 
cry just like babies. And it is said that when 
closely pursued, the mother will sometimes 
desert a female pup, but never will desert a 
male. They will drag their pups after them 
in danger, and often the pup will hold on to 
the mother's fur with its teeth. A full grown 
male will never desert his mate; and when she 
is wounded or killed will often try to drag her 
away. Hunters knowing this trait try to kill 
the female and the pups first, for they know 
it will not then be hard to secure the old male. 
Their noses are very sensitive to the cold, and 
are often frozen. In this way in very cold 
weather, they sometimes lose their lives. 

White men hunt the otter on the sea with 
rifles. When shot it never sinks, but then 
turns over and little is seen above the water. 
They have sharp scent and hearing, but poor 
eyesight. In the water they are very grace- 
ful, and can sleep curled up on the bounding 
billow fearing nothing. It is claimed by hunt- 
ers that they feed on shell-fish, sea-eggs, and 
mussels, which they open by taking one in each 
paw and striking them together. 



Page 76 



DRUNKEN BUTTERFLIES 



It is generally believed that man is the only 
representative of the animal kingdom that de- 
liberately becomes intoxicated; but this is an 
error. Sometimes monkeys do, and some wild 
birds will become drunken on rum-soaked grain. 
Wild geese are sometimes caught by soaking 
corn in rum and leaving it where they can get 
it. The ordinary house-fly will become so in- 
toxicated on tobacco juice that they will roll 
about the floor in a most amusing manner. But 
who would ever imagine that the butterflies 
would become "tipsy?" But an English Pro- 
fessor who had a number in captivity for the 
purpose of experiment writes: "I was not long 
in finding out that those of the 'fair sex' were 
remarkable for perfect sobriety. These winged 
ladies drank nothing but water, several drops 
of dew a day to quench their thirst. The males, 
on the contrary, were of a revolting intemper- 
ance. They came to the flowers whose distil- 
lation produced the most alcohol, and they 
drank of the juices to the point of remaining 
inanimate several hours. There was not a 
day that I did not pick up butterflies dead 
drunk." 

Page 77 



In these experiments the Professor did not 
stop with flowers, but used intoxicating spirits, 
with which he succeeded quite as well or better ; 
the butterflies coming to a few drops he placed 
on the glass to try them. They did not hesi- 
tate but went at their "dram" with the relish 
of old topers. Several of them succumbed and 
tumbled over, and the experimenter became 
satisfied that the butterfly does not merit the 
reputation which the poets give it for consis- 
tency. When the insect is overcome by the 
abuse of strong drink, it acts much as other 
inebriates. It becomes overbearingly affec- 
tionate toward its mate, staggering around her 
for her attention and help. There is this ex- 
cuse for drunken animals and insects, especi- 
ally for those that have never been drunken 
before; they do not know the bad effects of 
intoxicants, nor the danger they run, nor do 
they ever drink, we may suppose, for the pur- 
pose of the intoxicating effect, as the old 
toper does. They drink for the sweet con- 
tained, which is the food on which they live; 
and the intoxicating effect is one of which 
they know nothing until they are caught in 
the trap. It would be interesting to know 
if they ever learned to avoid this beverage, and 
if those that became inebriates ever reformed. 
But of this the Professor has not told us. That 
animals do learn to avoid traps and conditions 
that have gotten them into trouble is well 

Page 78 



known, and some become so wise that it is 
hard, even with the most tempting food, to 
catch them. 



Page 79 



A BEAUTIFUL EULOGY ON THE DEATH 
OF A DOG 



The following beautiful eulogy on the love 
of a dog is the report of Senator Vest's address 
before a jury in a civil case where a man had 
sued a neighbor for killing his dog, claiming 
$200 damages. After hearing this plea, the 
jury returned a verdit for the plaintiff for 
$500. One may question the justice of the 
verdict; for a plea by a lawyer is never a suf- 
ficient reason for rendering a verdict, however 
deeply it may impress a jury; but no one will 
question either the truth or the beauty of this 
plea, whether it could be properly applied to 
that particular dog or not. 

"Gentlemen of the jury: The best friend a 
man has in this world may turn against him 
and become his enemy. His son and daughter 
that he has reared with loving care become 
ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest 
to us, those whom we trust with our happiness 
and our good name may become traitors to 
their faith. The money that a man has he may 
lose. It flies away from him when he may 
need it most. Man's reputation may be sac- 
rificed in a moment of ill-considered action. 

Page 80 



The people who are prone to fall on their 
knees and do us honor when success is with us 
may be the first to throw the stone of malice 
when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. 
The absolute unselfish friend a man may have 
in this selfish world, the one that never deserts 
him, the one that never proves ungrateful or 
treacherous, is the dog. 

"Gentlemen of the jury: A man's dog stands 
by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health 
and sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground 
when the wintry winds blow and the snow 
drives fiercely, if only he may be near his 
master's side. He will kiss the hand that has 
no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and 
sores that come in encounter with the rough- 
ness of the world. He guards the sleep of his 
pauper master as if he were a Prince. 

"When all other friends desert he remains. 
When riches take wings and reputation falls 
to pieces he is as constant in his love as the 
sun in its journey through the heavens. If 
fortune drives the master forth an outcast 
into the world, friendless and homeless, the 
faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that 
of accompanying him, to guard him against 
dangers, to fight against his enemies, and 
when the last scene of all comes and death 
takes his master in its embrace and his body 
is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if 
all other iriends pursue their way, there by 

Page 81 



his grave-side will the noble dog be found, his 
head between his paws and his eyes sad but 
open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true 
even to death." 



Page 82 



LITTLE DOG "CAP" 



Captain was a little white fox terrier. He was 
found one day, a most forlorn and bedraggled 
puppy, apparently homeless, friendless, and 
starving on the great wharf of the Navigation 
Company at Astoria, Oregon. Some accident 
had befallen him, that left him dragging a 
terribly mutilated tail. The company's agent 
took the little dog, had his tail amputated and 
dressed. He very soon was a great pet at the 
home, and became a fine rat dog. His skill 
was so great that he soon had a reputation 
throughout the entire city. Business men 
would catch several rats, send for Cap, and let 
them all go at once in the street just to see 
the little dog catch them. He seldom let one 
get away. He would catch the half -grown ones 
at first, give them one strong bite, drop them 
and run for the next. By this means he had 
time to give the big ones a good death shaking, 
and then return and finish the others he had 
only crippled in his haste. Rats about the 
home had many hiding places, and were hard 
to catch. Then a party began watching for, 
and shooting them. This was something new 
for the little dog. He had never seen nor 

Page 83 



heard a gun, and ran from the report in terror ; 
but when he was once shown a rat that the 
gun had killed, he understood, and from that 
time became frantic to go for the rat the 
moment he heard the gun. After he had seen 
a few rats killed in this way and taken up on 
the hill for burial, invariably when given a rat 
that had been shot he took it off without com- 
mand, and buried it. He understood the crack 
of the rat-gun used, and no difference where it 
occurred if he was within hearing, he bounded 
away for a rat whenever and wherever he 
heard it. But the town boys could shoot about 
the premises all day and he gave no heed. 

One day the writer heard a rat in the base- 
ment gnawing. After listening a moment he 
said to one standing near: "I'll take the gun 
and see if I can find it." The little dog was 
within hearing, but not wishing him to go, the 
gun was secured in an adjoining room, and 
taken out by a doorway through the front of 
the house, in order that Cap should not see. 
The door to the basement opened on the out- 
side of the building at the rear. Before the 
shooter had time to get to the spot and open 
the door, Cap was there and slipped into the 
basement between his legs, though the dog 
had left the house by a rear door, and had run 
entirely round the building to reach the spot. 
How did he know what was going on? He did 
not see the gun, nor the party go to the base- 

Page 8k 



ment. But he did hear the conversation about 
it, and the plan laid. He must have known 
what was said, and acted accordingly, or he 
must have received his information by tele- 
pathy. 

Several years after the finding of Cap, an- 
other fox terrier pup came into the family. 
This pup was so playful that he became a 
great pet. But Cap became jealous. He could 
not be contented when the children were found 
playing with the new comer. If the pup had a 
ball or anything else as a plaything, Cap would 
watch his chance and take it away from him, 
go behind the stove, and lie down with one paw 
on it. The dogs never disagreed at any other 
time and never fought. They were fine com- 
panions at all times save when the pup was 
given special attention. The pup became as 
great a rat catcher as the old dog, but seldom 
had a fair chance to get the rat, and when he 
did, Cap would take it from him and bury it. 
Poor Cap, like many another aged being lived 
to see his laurels slipping from him, and at last 
died somewhat morose. The younger dog took 
his place in family affection, and showed 
marked intelligence. He understood a question 
when asked; would get his collar and bring it 
when asked if he wanted to go down street, 
and always carried his stick of wood from the 
basement to the stove when anyone went for 
wood to replenish the fire. He would go into 

Page 85 



the ocean surf with the bathers, swim until 
tired and then go to some one to be taken up 
and rested. He cared nothing for the rolling 
waves, and was utterly fearless in the water. 
He had little use for other dogs. He was en- 
tirely too high toned. He lived and acted so 
much like a child about the house, that he was 
treated much as a child, and seemed to learn 
as readily, though little labor was ever be- 
stowed to teach him. 



Page 86 



FUNNY FISHES 



There are many very queer fishes in the 
various oceans of the world that the ordinary 
reader never even hears anything about, and 
most people do not even know their names, 
which very often are as queer as the fish them- 
selves. One of these is the Porcupine fish. It 
belongs with the Sunfish family, which it some- 
what resembles. It has no teeth, but the point 
of the jaws are like enamel, a hard substance, 
crooked like the bill of a parrot. As these ivory 
tips wear off by constant use digging out its 
food from the crustaceans on the rocks in the 
ocean, they grow out again, and thus keep this 
fish supplied with proper tools for securing its 
food. It can inflate its stomach with air until 
it looks like a round ball, while all over it stiff 
short spines stand out like the quills on the 
back of the porcupine, from which this fish 
takes its name. When it is thus inflated, it 
resembles the burr of a chestnut. These fishes 
are not good for food, and some of this class 
are considered poisonous. When the stomach 
is inflated this fish swims on its back. 

Another strange fish is the Sea-Owl. It has 
a sucking disk with which it fastens itself by 

Page 87 



suction like a leech, to whatever it intends to 
feed upon. In this way it avoids being washed 
away by the current. The Dog-fish bends itself 
into a hoop, and when alarmed springs out 
without warning like a piece of rubber, by 
which it can strike a smart blow. These greatly 
annoy fishermen by chasing away better fish, 
and cutting off the hooks on the lines, 

Another interesting and strange fish of the 
deep seas is the Portuguese Man-of-war. These 
belong to the Jelly fishes. They are in shape 
like a boat, and each carries a large sail re- 
sembling isinglass, which bellies out with the 
wind causing the fish to cut through the water 
at a surprising rate of speed; they are found 
in the Indian Ocean. Then there is the Pilot 
fish. These are found, it is claimed, always 
accompanying the sharks. Seamen who have 
studied this subject claim that sharks are never 
without these Pilots guiding them; a custom 
from which they get their name. Before a 
shark will touch a piece of fresh meat tossed 
from a ship, it is affirmed, one of these Pilots 
will nose around it and after making an in- 
vestigation, will return to the shark, evidently 
for the purpose of making its report. 

Then we have the Band fish, the Bat fish, 
the Baloon fish, the Archer fish, the Trigger 
fish, the File fish, the Anchor fish, the Musk 
fish, the Goose fish, the Wolf fish, the Angel 
fish, and the Sea-Devil, the Angler, the Butter- 

Page 88 



fly, Bellows, Star, Sling, and Stickleback, the 
Hound, Gilthead, and Thornback, the Flying, 
Moon, Skate, King, Saw, Drum, Trench, Sword, 
Torpedo, Topknot, and Miller's Thumb. The 
Torpedo is the electric Ray. He carries an 
electric battery, and takes delight in shock- 
ing anybody who is incautious enough to touch 
him. 



Page 89 



BIRD SURGEONS 



Snipe have especial ability for repairing 
wounds, which often occur by accident. They 
seem to know how to meet these difficulties 
much better than other birds. With the aid of 
beak and feathers they will arrange and apply 
a dressing like plaster for bleeding wounds, 
and can also make a bandage suitable for a 
broken bone. A snipe killed by a hunter had 
on its breast a dressing made of the down and 
feathers plucked from its own body, and that 
had been but recently applied. It was well 
fixed upon the wound, by the coagulated blood. 
Another of these birds at the moment it was 
killed had in its mouth the feathers which it 
had been applying to a bleeding wound ; a third 
was found with its claws broken, an accident 
that had happened some time previous. In 
this case the bird had successfully applied a 
kind of splint to the broken members, but in 
the course of the operation its feathers had 
become entangled in its bill, and unable to 
disengage them, it had died of hunger. Another 
snipe was found whose claws had been broken 
by a shot from a huntsman. In this instance 
the bird had shown real genius. It had applied 

Page 90 



a splint arranged from two small wood splint- 
ers, which were retained in position by feathers 
and moss, and the whole surrounded by a 
spirally rolled leaf, and this was held in place 
by some kind of glue. 

Other birds have been known to practice this 
surgery for their crippled mates. They are also 
careful of their nests after the young are 
hatched, invariably carrying off the useless egg 
shells and all offal. If a young bird dies, it is 
at once thrown from the nest. 



Page H 



VAMPIRES— BLOODSUCKING BATS 



A gentleman who for years was a resident 
of Brazil, gives this description of the Vampire. 

"When I was a schoolboy the Vampire was a 
bat as large as a cow, had a horn on his nose 
and was described as sitting on its victim's 
feet, fanning him with its wings while working 
its pumping apparatus. There is such a bat, 
but when it was proved that it was a fruit- 
eater many of us doubted the whole bat legend 
along with the old mythology. There is a 
bloodsucking Vampire, however — millions of 
them. The old Spanish conquistadors found 
proof of its existence in sore great toes, which 
looked as if the skin had been shaved off just 
deep enough to ooze blood; but they never 
caught one, and naturally laid the blame to the 
biggest bat they found, which are nearly all 
vegetarians. The real thing is a small reddish 
brown creature closely resembling bats of the 
same color caught here frequently. 

"The Naturalist, however, finds some sur- 
prising differences. They have no teeth for 
any purpose, save for thinning the skin — not 
enough for the blood to flow freely, but just 
sufficient to enable them to draw it by suction. 

Page 92 



The wound rarely bleeds after they leave it. 
This preparation is done with a pair of teeth, 
chisel-like, and sharp as a knife. Their in- 
terior anatomy differs from other animals as 
well as their teeth. All others, so far as known 
have a stomach and necessary organs for con- 
verting food into blood; but the Vampire has 
only an alongated sacklike intestine for the 
storage of the blood taken, which requires 
no digestion till it is taken up into the 
circulatory system. With neither teeth 
nor stomach, it has no alternative; it must 
find nourishment ready made. This peculiarity 
may or may not account for one very strange 
thing about its selection of victims. The chief 
ones are cattle and horses. Not one human 
being in a hundred entirely satisfies their 
taste. Not half the people who live among 
them all their lives are ever bitten. But if one 
of the family just suits them, they will follow 
that person to any part of the house, and no 
matter how carefully he may be covered or 
screened, they will find their particular tipple. 
"The stories of their bleeding people almost 
to death are true only partly. I have known 
one boy who was so persistently followed that 
while the loss of blood was small from a single 
attack, after months of this drain he was 
greatly reduced in vitality. He was always 
bitten in the same place — the end of the great 
toe — and it became so lacerated that there was 

Page 93 



considerable subsequent hemmorhage. This 
lad was the youngest of four brothers. They 
all slept in the same room and sometimes 
changed beds, but none of the others was ever 
bitten. 

"Cattle and horses are always attacked at a 
spot on the spine just back of the shoulders, 
where the hair separates in a star-like spot. 
This in the case of a horse is just where the 
front end of the saddle comes, and it makes a 
vast deal of trouble where every one rides 
horse-back. A majority of the Brazilian horses 
and nearly all the cows are bitten by these 
plagues. Fortunately the pests are mostly 
confined to the forest country. They give com- 
paratively little trouble in cities and villages, 
though the construction of houses makes it im- 
possible to keep them out. In the cities tiles 
are used for roofs, and in the country palm-leaf 
thatching, and all kinds of bats come and go at 
pleasure. One rarely goes to sleep without 
from one to a dozen flying about the room. 
They are nearly all harmless, and are welcome 
because they catch the insects. They all look 
so much alike that one does not know which 
to attack. 

"How the genuine Vampires eluded scientific 
research so long is a mystery. The species 
was not positively identified until the visit of 
Darwin in the Beagle. It was in the seventies, 
I think, and there is not at the present day, as 

Page H 



far as I can learn, a single well authenticated 
case recorded in the natural histories of a true 
Vampire captured while feeding on a human 
being." 



Page 95 



COLD STORAGE CATS AND RATS 



When "cold storage" of foodstuffs was first 
inaugurated, it was found a sure preventive of 
rats and mice. They could not endure the cold 
in these buildings, and business men were con- 
gratulating themselves that at least there was 
one place safe from their depradations. But 
men were mistaken. It was not long until Mr. 
Rat found means to adapt himself to the new 
conditions. After some of these houses had 
been in operation for a few months, the keepers 
found that rats were at work in rooms where 
the temperature was constantly below the 
freezing point. These rats in some way un- 
known to the attendants, had clothed them- 
selves with a winter coat of fur never known 
on a rat's back before, and even their naked 
tails were covered with a growth of hair. It 
was not long until all these cold storage ware- 
houses were in trouble with rats, just as 
formerly. Their fur-coats were such a protec- 
tion that Mr. Rat found no inconvenience in a 
cold climate. This new trouble led the owners 
to devise means to meet the emergency. They 
supposed if rats could live here, cats could 
also, and so they placed cats in these cold ware- 

Page 96 



houses to catch the rats. But the cats died 
of the cold. Pussy is too much a lover of 
warmth and comfort. But cats also have a 
great adaptability to conditions, and after 
several unsuccessful trials, a cat was found, 
and introduced into one of these houses, that 
proved equal to the demand. She thrived and 
grew fat in these cold quarters, and like the 
rats, soon had on an extra fur-coat. She was 
carefully nursed in quarters where the tem- 
perature was kept below the freezing point, 
until she brought forth a brood of kittens, 
which like herself, had coats to withstand the 
cold. These were distributed among other 
warehouses, and there is now a new breed of 
both cats and rats. These cats are strong 
chubby animals, with short tails, and long hair 
with a thick under growth of fur, much re- 
sembling the wild cat of the forest. One of 
their strange peculiarities is the development 
of excessively long "feelers" from the nose. In 
the ordinary cat these are about two and a half 
inches to three inches in length, but in these 
cold storage cats they grow to the length of 
five to six inches. This, no doubt, is because 
the light is so dim in these places that the cat 
must depend on these feelers, rather than sight. 
But these cats cannot live now in a warm 
place, they die in a few hours. Thus it is that 
nature has some mysterious means of adapting 
its living subjects to all the conditions that con- 

Page 97 



front them. The strongest and fittest, if given 
the opportunity, will develop the necessary 
qualities to meet the demand. 



Page 98 



"WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN?" 



Two robins that had been accustomed to 
build their nest in an elm near the house, 
when the spring opened began as usual, and 
went on joyously. They were a happy pair 
and greatly appreciated by the family in the 
house; but one morning a great commotion 
was heard in the tree, and it was evident that 
a fight was going on. An examination showed 
that the pugnatious English sparrow had dis- 
puted the right to the elm, and while the nest- 
builders were absent had begun to tear up the 
nest. This disheartened the robins and they 
soon left their unfinished nest to the merau- 
ders. But they were determined to build in 
the yard. They had done so for years and 
they did not recognize the right of the sparrows 
to all the trees. Going very much higher in 
the branches, they began again, in a maple 
tree that stood near. In a few days the same 
struggle with the sparrows began again, and 
it was not long until the new enterprise was 
in ruins like the first. Sticks, feathers, grass 
and bits of string, that the builders had used 
in construction, littered the yard under the 
tree, and again the sparrows were victorious. 

Page 99 



This is the habit of the sparrow. He can whip 
most of the small birds, and these he drives 
away, so that now these are seldom seen. But 
the larger birds he is not equal to in a pitched 
battle; but he watches his chance and while 
the owners of the nest are absent seeking new 
material, or food, he slips in and tears up the 
nest. Once the nest is destroyed a bird will 
not build in that place again. In the case of 
these robins their nest was destroyed twice, 
and how many more times no one knew, but 
the robins' morning song soon ceased, and this 
last enterprise was also abandoned. An exam- 
ination showed that something worse than the 
destruction of the home had occurred. A dead 
robin was seen to be dangling from the nest. 
A long pole was secured, on the end of which 
a knife was fastened, and the dead bird was 
cut down. It was then found that it was the 
cock, and that in some way he had become 
tangled in a string, one end of which was 
fastened in the material of the nest and twisted 
among the twigs of the tree. The string was 
passed around the body and knotted around the 
bird's neck. Now the question is, how did it 
occur? Did the dead bird in despair under his 
trouble commit suicide by hanging himself; 
was it an accident, or did the sparrows murder 
him? It does not seem possible that either the 
first or last supposition could be the truth ; but 
the question unsolved is still, "who killed cock 
robin?" 

Page 100 



A LADY'S PRIVATE ZOO 



Mrs. John Elitch, according to a magazine 
writer, has in Denver, Colorado, a Zoo, all her 
own, and which she personally superintends. 
More than this, she associates with her birds 
and animals on the most familiar terms. She 
goes into the bear-pit, and the fierce beasts 
which would not tolerate a stranger, at her 
presence only grunt their satisfaction, and 
sometimes frollic around her, as if trying to 
show their appreciation of her visit. They eat 
sugar from her hand, and are perfectly harm- 
less. She will take the kittens from the lioness 
mother and romp with them on the grass, 
while the birds raise a perfect pandimonium 
of noise at her presence. Everything not con- 
fined in a cage makes a rush for her the mo- 
ment she appears, for they have learned she 
is principally all pockets full of good things, and 
they know each will get his share. When she 
leaves, a whole menagerie follows regret- 
fully at her heels until they can go no farther. 
In the line are deer, kangaroos, ostriches, and 
birds; the lions roar, bears growl, and coyotes 
bark a goodbye. 

During one of Denver's flower festivals Mrs. 

Page 101 



Elitch astonished the mountain natives by ap- 
pearing in the carnival parade riding in a 
beautifully decorated vehicle drawn by a giant 
ostrich. He was under perfect command, and 
though bridled like a horse, was safely guided 
by the slightest touch of a whip. The ostrich 
became a great favorite and was sadly mourned 
when he died, as it was said, by eating the 
McKinley buttons from the coats of visitors. 
This does not sound reasonable, but it has been 
published as the truth; and it is known that 
these greedy birds will eat almost anything 
they can find. Other birds in their greediness, 
especially when in flocks, will rush to anything 
that falls among them, and swallow it down 
without taking note of it, whether food or not. 
A flock of ducks before the door of a black- 
smith's shop, when a red-hot slug of iron was 
thrown to them all scrambled for it. One 
swallowed it, and a moment later this duck 
stretched its neck out on the ground and the 
slug burned through and dropped away. What 
became of the duck after this warm meal was 
not observed. The chief work of the lower 
animals is the endless search for food, and 
they are always hungry. A good supply of the 
right kind of food will subdue the ferocity of 
any animal. It was wholly through this 
method that this zoo was made harmless. The 
demand of the stomach in all animal life is 
irresistible, and housewives persist in saying 

Page 102 



man is no exception, since it is the only way 
they have of reaching his heart — with good 
meals — through his stomach. 



Page 103 



SEALS AND SEAL HUNTERS 



The most expert hunters in the world are 
the Esquimaux. As they must depend en- 
tirely on their ability to catch the wary seal 
in order to live, their entire business, aside 
from their domestic duties, consists of hunting ; 
and when it is remembered they live in the 
midst of eternal snow and ice, without the 
modern conveniences of the hunter of more 
favored localities, their success is wonderful. 
The seal is an animal that cannot breathe under 
the water, and must often come to the surface 
for air; but when the ice covers all the water, 
the only opportunity for breathing periods is 
through what is known as a breathing-hole. 
These are little openings through the ice often 
no larger than a goose-quill and entirely covered 
by two or three feet of snow. The hunter's 
dog is trained by his scent to detect these seal- 
holes, even though nothing appears above the 
surface of the snow. When a hole is discovered 
the hunter seats himself by it, and like a cat, 
watches for the game to appear when it is im- 
mediately thrust with a spear. These hunters 
have been known to thus stealthily watch 
a seal-hole for twenty-four hours without eat- 

Page 10k 



ing or sleeping, then go home and return for 
a similar vigil the next day. Some hunters 
use a very slender ivory rod about twelve 
inches long which they attach to the ice above 
a breathing-hole, allowing the rod to stick 
loosely through the ice in the hole. When a 
seal comes to breathe it takes no notice of so 
small an obstruction, and pushes it up with 
its nose. The hunter seeing it rise knows that 
a seal has approached, and that is the hole to 
watch. If already on watch at that place, he 
at once drives his spear down by the side of the 
ivory rod, and thus catches his prey. Another 
method of hunting is by the use of the young 
seal as a decoy. When a young seal is about 
to be born, the mother scratches away the ice 
until she can climb out. Then under the snow 
she makes her home for the new baby. This 
is done by making a tunnel in the snow, much 
like the hunter makes his house. The young 
seal remains here until the sun melts away the 
snow, or it is able to take care of itself. These 
seal igloos are discovered by the trained dogs, 
and when found, the hunter jumps on the top 
with all his weight, packing down the snow 
on the baby seal which he then spears through 
the snow. The instrument used for this pur- 
pose is called a sealing-hook. When he has 
dragged the young seal out, the hunter ties a 
long line to one of the hind flippers, and allows 
it to slip into the sea through the tunnel, and 

Page 105 



holding it there, hopes to spear the mother 
when she comes to aid her captive baby. Still 
another mode of hunting is to watch for the 
seals when on the ice. The seal sleeps only 
in little naps of a few seconds at a time, then 
lifts its head and looks for an enemy, when it 
sleeps again. The hunter creeps forward while 
it sleeps, and lies motionless when it lifts its 
head. In this way he imitates the seal, and 
can approach within spearing distance, all the 
time droning what is known as "seal-talk," 
which is supposed to have some kind of magic 
or charm. 

When the seals are in the open water, they 
are hunted in a boat. The spear-head is not 
solidly fastened to the shaft in these excur- 
sions, but is temporarily held with a thong 
which is secured to a leather foat, filled with 
air. If the seal is killed outright it always 
sinks, or if only wounded may escape, but with 
the spear-head fast in the wound, and also 
attached to a float it can neither sink nor get 
away. When the seal is caught the hunter 
balances it on his frail boat, which is all covered 
except a place where he sits to paddle, and 
regardless of the tossing and shifting waves, 
carries it home. 



Page 106 



A COW SCARED TO DEATH 



A Pennsylvania farmer noticed his cow 
making repeated and furious charges at a 
dense thicket. The animal would rush at the 
spot again and again, striking with its horns 
and bellowing long and loud. An investigation 
showed that she was fighting a big blacksnake, 
and trying to stamp it to death with her fore 
feet. The thicket was an isolated clump of 
laurels, and the snake did not seem disposed to 
leave it. Finally the cow lowering her head 
attempted to impale it on her horns, but it 
suddenly sprang on her head and coiled itself 
around the horns, and refused to be shaken off. 
For a moment she seemed dazed and uncertain 
what to do, then she set off at a furious pace, 
occasionally stopping and trying to rub the 
reptile off. When at last she realized that 
all her efforts to get rid of her enemy were 
fruitless, she rushed like mad across the field. 
The men on the farm made an effort to follow 
and corner her, but she was so frenzied that 
she would charge at everything in sight. She 
bellowed herself hoarse, while foam came from 
her mouth, and blood from her nostrils. Her 
sides were distended, and she panted as if her 

Page 107 



skin would burst. Whenever the men ap- 
proached she would start again, tossing her 
head, and bellowing louder than before. But 
do what she would, the snake maintained its 
hold. It did not seem to make any effort to 
strike the cow, but it was determined not to 
be shaken off. Do what they would the cow 
kept out of the reach of the men, and acted as 
if entirely crazy. Occasionally the serpent 
would half unwind itself, and allow its head to 
play before the cow's eyes, then she would 
bellow with renewed energy and gallop off in 
another direction. Various methods were de- 
vised to head her off and remove the snake, 
but all in vain. She would rear and pitch, run 
backward with her head near the ground, leap 
into the air, and cut all imaginable capers. At 
last she could hold out no longer and fell from 
sheer exhaustion. When the men rushed to 
her side and dispatched the snake, she was no 
longer able to rise, and after violently panting 
for a few seconds, expired. The snake when 
killed was found to measure more than six feet 
in length. As the blacksnake is not poisonous, 
the cow was in no danger, even if it had bitten 
her, but the poor animal did not know that. 
She was simply frightened to death. It has 
often been noticed that animals have a dread- 
ful horror of serpents; and it may be for this 
reason that so few are ever bitten by them. 
In the mountains of British Columbia the 

Page 108 



rattlesnake is very common, but the farmers 
allow their stock to fatten on the grassy slopes 
for months without any attention, and it is 
very seldom that an animal is ever bitten. Deer 
will stamp serpents to death, and many dogs 
will kill them without fear; apparently under- 
standing just how to catch them to avoid dan- 
ger. But this poor cow was so crazed with 
fright that she could neither help herself, nor 
would she allow her friends to aid her. 



Page 109 



A MAN SAVED BY HIS FAITHFUL DOG 



A gentleman who had taken up a homestead 
claim in Oregon, was far away from his nearest 
neighbor, and alone with his Collie. Every- 
thing went all right until he was taken sick. 
For some time he worried along fighting off 
the disease, hoping that he would be able to 
continue his work; but day by day he grew 
worse, until he was at last confined to his 
cabin, and later, had to take to his bed. Now 
he was in a strait indeed, for he could neither 
help himself nor go for help, the nearest 
neighbor being four miles away, and the only 
road leading over the mountains. Growing 
worse and worse he saw that he must have aid 
or die, and there was but one messenger within 
reach. He had his faithful dog, and deter- 
mined to try this last chance. He scribbled his 
condition and need on a piece of paper, fastened 
it around the dog's neck, and told him to go. 
The dog seemed to understand, for he at once 
started as bidden. The animal had not been 
away from the cabin for six months, but he 
made the trip over the mountain alone. He 
started from the homesteader's cabin at mid- 
night, and so far as is known, never halted 

Page 110 



until he covered the four miles of mountain 
trail, showing up in the early morning at 
the home of his owner's brother. When the 
dog was admitted, he jumped on the bed and 
barked. His manner was such that had he 
lost the note the family would have under- 
stood that something had happened and the 
dog had come to tell them; but the note was 
still on his neck, which clearly revealed the 
situation and what was needed. A physician 
was hastily called and sent to the sick man, 
who found a very sick patient; but later re- 
ported that he would recover. Here was a 
clear case of a man's life saved by his faith- 
ful dog. And it raises the question, how are 
we to reconcile such an act as this with, the 
theory that animals do not reason? This dog 
did precisely what he was told to do, and in 
precisely the manner any other messenger 
would have done it. He did not carry the 
message only, but he told the story in his own 
language, just as any other messenger would 
have done, and no doubt would have told all the 
incidents of the midnight trip over the rugged 
mountain trail had he been able to do so. But 
how did he know what was wanted? Dog- 
tricks are plenty. These are easily explained. 
But this is no trick. The dog acted promptly, 
intelligently, and exactly as any other messen- 
ger would have done who fully comprehended 
the urgency of the situation. He knew what 

Page 111 



was wanted, though he could not read the mes- 
sage he carried; and if he knew, how could 
this occur, unless he reasoned, "the man's 
brother must be informed of the sick man's 
situation, and he wants me to go and tell him; 
to do this I must go at once through the dark- 
ness, alone over the mountain trail and de- 
liver the message tied around my neck." If he 
did this, he reasoned. If he did not thus reason 
and meet the need, how did he meet it? That 
he did, and that just such intelligence by dogs 
has been shown again and again, is a matter of 
undisputed history. 



Page 112 



THE PASSENGER PIGEON 



Sixty years ago the passenger pigeon — then 
known as the wild pigeon — abounded in the 
United States, especially east of the Rocky 
mountains, in such countless numbers that no 
attempt can convey to the reader of today who 
never saw these millions, any adequate con- 
ception of this army of birds. For years they 
could be seen hourly flying in all directions, or 
sitting upon the trees near their feeding places, 
in such vast numbers that there v/as no room 
for more. They numbered untold millions, and 
often could be seen as closely packed together 
as could be to allow of any movement, flutter- 
ing close to the ground, the rear ranks suc- 
cessively rolling over those in front like great 
billows, and with the roar of the ocean surf. 
When suddenly the whole army would rise to 
depart, the noise was like thunder. They were 
scattered all over the country, and at no time 
could one look over the fields or toward the 
heavens without seeing great flocks coming 
and going in restless hungry quest. Their 
roosting places were great colony collections 
in the timber, that were hastily resorted to 
late in the evenings, always in the same places, 

Page 113 



gradually growing more extended from day to 
day. Long during the night new arrivals would 
continue, lighting on the backs of birds already 
settled, and in the darkness and crowding, 
keeping up an incessant protest of cackling 
until people beneath the trees could not carry 
on conversation. From time to time limbs 
would crack, break off and crash to the ground 
with the weight of the birds. To these roosts 
hunters came with their express-wagons, a 
lantern, and a long fishing-pole. A tap on the 
head would bring the dazed and fluttering bird 
to the ground. It was then picked up and 
placed in a cage in the wagon. There was no 
end to the number that could be thus secured 
in a single evening. One accustomed to it 
could tap these birds so as to secure them, 
without permanently injuring them, and thus 
hundreds were kept caged for weeks or even 
months. They seemed always hungry, and 
would eat as soon as captured, often out of 
the hunter's hand. They were caught also 
in traps and nets; and thousands were mar- 
keted, while other thousands were dressed and 
salted down for future use. 

Like their regular roosts, they had their 
breeding places where they congregatd by mil- 
lions, using the timber much in the same way. 
Every available space would be taken in all 
the trees over acres upon acres of the great 
forests of Wisconsin and Minnesota. These 

Page XU 



forests had not then been disturbed by woods- 
men as in later years; and these birds took 
possession of large areas, crowding each other 
for their nests, just as they crowded for a place 
to roost. Their feeding places were in the 
great oak and beech woods of the East, where 
they could secure the acorn, and the beech-nut ; 
and during the winter, over the ranges where 
in those days the farmers feed large bodies 
of cattle and hogs. It was the custom then to 
"Hog down corn," as the farmer expressed it. 
Hundreds of hogs for the market would be 
fattened by turning them into great fields of 
standing corn, allowing thern to pull it down 
themselves and eat at leisure. A large quantity 
of grain would thus be shelled and the loose 
kernels abandoned on the ground. This was a 
rare chance for the pigeons that could always 
be found about these fields, on the ground feed- 
ing, or having full crops, in the dead trees 
lazily waiting for hunger to renew the quest. 
For a number of years, these countless flocks 
did not seem to decrease but rather to in- 
crease, and when at length they were gone, no 
one seemed able to account for their disappear- 
ance. There were many conjectures as to the 
cause. One author claimed they must have 
been destroyed in a hurricane, by being blown 
out to sea; others supposed that some disease 
must have killed them! and it was not until 
of late years that the truth has been told. It 

Page 115 



is the same old story. They were destroyed 
by the pot-hunter, who shipped them to the 
eastern markets, not by car-loads, but by train- 
loads. Whole tribes of our western Indians 
went into these forests and camped on these 
nesting grounds, not only killing the old birds 
by the hundred thousands, but securing the 
squabs, and destroying the nests and unhatched 
eggs by cutting down the timber. 

Thus the buffalo and the passenger pigeon 
have met the same fate at the hands of the 
same merciless game hunter. Both belong to 
a period of American history that can never 
return. Neither can be seen again as in these 
earlier years, not even if it was desirable. 
The physical changes of our country alone 
would prevent this, even if the most costly 
and heroic effort of the government was made 
to secure it. There are now too many hunters, 
guns too dangerous, too little forest mast for 
the one, and no grassy plain for the other. The 
gray haired men of today who were boys then, 
look back with regret to the time when daddy's 
back lot was a hunting ground, and any boy 
with sufficient skill to make a trap of sticks 
and set it with a figure-four trigger, could keep 
the larder supplied with meat ; and all the more 
so, because they cannot even describe these 
millions upon millions of flying birds so that 
their own children can understand the wonder- 
ful picture. 

Page 116 



A DOG THAT PLAYED 'POSSUM 



Dogs in the cities often become very trouble- 
some. People who have them are not always 
careful to keep them at home, and some times 
great damage is done to lawns, flower gardens, 
and other property. The authorities are com- 
pelled to make owners pay a license on them, 
or have them run the risk of being caught by 
the officer whose duty it is to kill them. It 
is not a popular employment, and the "dog 
killer's" place in society is not an enviable one, 
since nobody wants his dog killed, though he 
may not think enough of him to pay for his 
protection. Dogs caught are placed in a large 
enclosure, and if no owner appears to claim 
them, after a certain time limit, they are shot. 
It has been found that many dogs thus im- 
prisoned seem to anticipate their fate; and 
especially is this seen to be the case after one 
or two has been seen shot. They know what 
is to be their fate, and often set up a howl of 
despair, as they see their turn coming. An 
officer whose duty it was to dispatch the dogs, 
tells this story: "Many times I have gone to 
the pound and found forty or fifty dogs there, 
and the moment I entered, the dogs seemed 

Page 117 



to know my mission and would try to avoid me. 
I used a small rifle, and it was therefore neces- 
sary to hit them squarely in the head in order 
to quickly kill them, and with as little pain as 
possible. But they seemed to understand so 
clearly, that they would turn from me and 
hang their heads against the wall, out of range. 
Many a time I have left the pen heart-sick with 
myself and my job." 

"The most disagreeable experience I ever 
had was with a little black and tan terrier. 
That morning there were forty-five dogs in the 
pen. In half an hour they were all dispatched 
and lying about. It was the custom to go 
about among them, and touch each one with 
the foot to see that he was really dead. That 
morning while doing this last duty, the little 
terrier suddenly jumped to his feet and made 
a break for liberty. He was the deadest dog 
I ever saw until I touched him with my foot. 
He had been only 'possuming.' When he reached 
the gate to the enclosure and found it locked, 
he ran round and round the fence crying most 
pitifully, and my heart failed me. The fact 
is, I would have lost my job before I would have 
shot that little dog, and as he came round again 
I called the gate keeper and we let him out. 
He fairly flew down the street, and was soon 
out of sight. Our chief was very strict about 
such matters, and I felt uneasy about letting 
the dog go, but when I told him of it, he de- 

Page 118 



clared he would have discharged me if I had 
killed that little dog." 



Page 119 



TRAPS THAT CATCH THE WRONG GAME 



Several years ago a gentleman in Berlin, 
Germany, established a dog-school. His train- 
ing was not for the purpose of teaching the 
dog the usual tricks, but for the purpose of 
making him a useful watch dog; and while 
proving a terror to the thief and burglar, to 
be gentle and affectionate toward his owner. 
His idea was that a dog was not at his best 
as a performer of tricks, however interesting 
these might prove at an entertainment; but 
that he could be trained to be very useful 
as a policeman about the home. Under this 
gentleman's plan each dog to be trained is first 
put through a process of instruction as to what 
part of a burglar to attack, should this oc- 
casion occur. But first of all, the dog must be 
taught obedience. This is secured by teach- 
ing the ordinary dog-tricks, such as sitting on 
his haunches, jumping over a stick, bringing 
a ball, carrying things for his master, and any 
other duties which qualify him to obey com- 
mands. When he has mastered these simple 
lessons, he is given instruction in more com- 
plicated things. Just outside of the gate a 
dummy representing a tramp is placed. A 

Page 120 



string is fastened to the gate by which it is 
slowly pulled open, and the tramp's head is 
thrust in. The dogs are taught to fly at the 
intruder the moment he appears. But this is 
not all. The dog is taught where to lay hold 
the more successfully to overcome the enemy. 
He catches the imitation burglar by the throat 
at the first spring. But like many traps people 
set for others, this instruction proved too ser- 
viceable. Desiring to fully test a dog that had 
shown unusual ability in this school, this gen- 
tleman dressed up as a burglar and tried the 
game himself. Coming into the gate in rags, 
and stealthily approaching the house, the dog 
flew at him as it had been taught to do, and 
refused to be quieted. The gentleman sup- 
posed his voice would subdue his assailant, but 
this did not work. No sham for that dog! He 
proposed to do his duty as he had been care- 
fully taught, and his instructor only succeeded 
in getting away with his life by running several 
blocks, with this trained pupil nipping at his 
heels. Thus it often turns out, that we are 
caught in our own traps. A few years ago 
a gentleman in Ohio whose premises had been 
robbed, on going away for several days in- 
structed his hired man to waMi at night and 
fire on any one he saw approaching the house. 
Like the dog, he was too well trained. A man 
approached the first night, and was promptly 
fired on with buck shot, after being ordered 

Page 121 



to halt. Instead of obeying the order the man 
turned and fled and was shot down as he ran. 
This man was the owner of the premises, who 
had instructed his help to shoot. For some 
reason he did not live to make known he had 
unexpectedly returned the evening of the same 
day he left, and it is supposed he had for- 
gotten his orders to the hired man and in his 
sudden confusion at the order to halt, as the 
situation of danger flashed upon him, instead 
of halting he ran, and thus lost his life. A 
stranger feature of this case was, that years 
before, this man had been shot through the 
body near the heart at the battle of Stone's 
River, and had survived, only to be killed by a 
gun shot through his own orders. 



Page 122 



A DISHONEST DOG 



Barbekark was a smart dog once owned by 
an Esquimaux. He was considered the leader 
of the team. It is reported of this dog that 
he knew much more than just to lead other 
dogs in the great race with sledges over the 
vast snow fields. Once he went hunting on his 
own account, killed a deer, bit a piece from its 
neck, took it home, and then brought his master 
to the place where he had left the dead deer. 
A brother of this dog was also very intelligent. 
Once when with the rest of the team as the 
leader, he saw a seal lying on the ice, he dashed 
forward and caught it just as it was slipping 
into the water. He caught it by one of the 
hind flippers, and the other dogs giving help, 
the two soon had it back on the ice, where their 
master secured it. But Barbekark was in the 
habit of performing a dishonest trick, like 
many animals that are not dogs, and thus bene- 
fitting himself at the expense of the rest of 
the team. These dogs were fed on a small 
dried fish called "capelins." Their master 
would have them all stand in a circle and 
give each a fish in turn, but Barbekark took 
it into his head to play a white man's trick, 

Page 123 



so every time he received his fish he would 
back square out of the line, move a distance 
of three or four dogs, and force himself in line 
again, thus receiving double the share of any 
other dog. His master determined to put a 
stop to this dishonesty. His master said, "each 
dog on receiving his portion, always shook his 
tail apparently in thankfulness, but Barbekark 
always wagged his tail as if he was doubly 
thankful, and a twinkle in his eyes as they 
caught mine seemed to say, 'keep dark; these 
ignorant fellows don't know the game I'm play- 
ing.' Seeing my face smiling at his trick, he 
now commenced making another change, thus 
getting three portions to the other's one. This 
was enough, and it was now time to reverse 
the game by playing a trick on him. Accord- 
ingly, every time I came to him he got no fish, 
and though he changed his position three times 
he got nothing. Now, if ever there was a 
picture of disappointed plans — of envy at 
other's fortune, and sorrow at his own mis- 
fortune — it was to be found in that dog's coun- 
tenance as he watched his companions receiving 
their allowance. Finding that he could not 
succeed by any change of his position, he with- 
drew from the circle and came to me, crowd- 
ing his way between my legs, and looking up 
into my face seemed to say, I've been a very 
bad dog, forgive me and I will cheat my brother 
dogs no more; please, sir, give me my share of 

Page 12U 



capelins.' I went the rounds three times more 
and let him have his fish, as he had shown 
himself so sagacious, and so much like a re- 
pentent prodigal dog." These team dogs seem 
always hungry, but in spite of this can endure 
almost any amount of hardship, without ap- 
pearing any the worse for it. Capt. Hall re- 
lates that one of them in seven seconds ate a 
piece of walrus hide and blubber six feet long 
and an inch and a half square ; a team has been 
known to eat nothing for forty-eight hours and 
in the meantime to travel seventy-five miles, 
and yet appear as fresh as when they started. 



Page 125 



HABITS OF THE HONEY-BEE 



Honey-bees are not only the most wonderful 
workers, and for this reason often pointed to 
as examples of unflagging diligence and untir- 
ing patience, but they exhibit a skill and 
knowledge that are unsurpassed among insects. 
Like the ants, their colonies are composed of 
three classes. The queen, the workers, and the 
drones. The queen lays the eggs, and these 
are produced from three hundred to one thou- 
sand a day. The number depends largely on 
the condition of the weather. Some writers 
claim that the queen places the eggs in the va- 
rious cells provided for them by the workers; 
but other writers claim that she lays her eggs 
promiscuously about the hive, and that these 
are carefully collected and deposited in the cells 
by the workers. There are three kinds of cells. 
In one land only queens are hatched ; in another 
the drones, and in still another the workers. 
The workers number many thousand; in large 
swarms as many as sixty thousand; but there 
are only a few hundred of the drones, who alone 
are the male bees. When the honey collecting 
season is about over, the drones are all killed 
off by the workers. At this time if one watches 
the hives they will see every few minutes two 

Page 126 



workers come struggling out of the hive each 
holding on to a drone, which can always be 
known because they are much larger than the 
workers. The unfortunate victim is dragged 
to the front, his wings are cut off, and he is 
then dropped to the ground to die. Whether 
the workers do anything else to destroy the 
drones is uncertain. But these may be seen 
for hours creeping and struggling on the 
ground about the hive before they finally 
perish. 

The queen does not seem to have any author- 
ity among the workers, but she is quite a royal 
personage, goes where she pleases in the hive, 
and is always attended with a bodyguard, who 
show her great deference, always opening a 
passage for her, and often feeding her ; but she 
is a jealous queen, and would kill all the young 
queens hatching in the cells if she was not pre- 
vented by the workers. When a new queen 
comes out then there is royal trouble. The old 
queen leaves the hive with her subjects, and a 
new one takes her place; but two cannot live 
free in the same hive. If an accident happens 
to the queen and there is none to take her 
place, there is some not well understood process 
by which the ordinary larva in a worker's cell 
can be made to produce another queen. This is 
one of the greatest mysteries of beedom. When 
the eggs hatch they come out a small worm, 
and are fed by the workers ; after a short time 
the workers seal the grub up in its cell and 

Page 127 



leave it to work out its own destiny. By an 
arrangement of Nature, in its mouth it has a 
silk-factory, and at once begins to clothe itself 
with a silk wardrobe, spinning it out much as 
the spider does his web. Later it bursts its en- 
closure and comes out a young bee, and just 
like any other baby is carefully trimmed and 
guarded, until in a day or two it is ready to 
fly with the rest. One of the most singular 
things about bees is that they have five eyes — 
two large eyes in the front of the head, and 
three smaller ones on the top of the head. When 
a swarm leaves the hive for a new home, it 
usually settles in a great body, bees hanging 
on to each other until the swarm presents a 
bunch of bees that would fill a peck measure. 
Here they wait until their spies that have been 
sent on to look out a new home, return and 
report. A swarm has been known to remain 
in this position for thirty-six hours, but this is 
rare. They seldom remain in this condition 
over night ; but in at least one instance a large 
swarm settled near the ground on some vines 
and remained two days and nights exposed to 
a cold rain. The last morning all seemed to be 
dead; but when the sun came up and it began 
to get warm, two or three bees were seen to 
crawl with great difficulty into the sunshine. 
After these were warmed up, they went to those 
apparently dead, crawling over them and rub- 
bing them exactly as one would massage an- 
other person. As each bee began to move it 

Page 128 



was escorted to the sunshine, and in turn be- 
came a helper. In a little while hundreds of 
bees were brought back to life, and later in 
the day the whole swarm was revived and sailed 
away to their new home, somewhere in an ad- 
joining forest. Drones have no sting, but the 
queen and workers will sting an enemy that 
disturbs them, and the worker usually leaves 
its sting in the wound and dies later from the 
damage it has inflicted upon itself. But no hive 
will work and make honey without its queen. 



Page 129 



THE MONKEY AND THE BULLDOG 



Some of the monkey family in India are held 
sacred. They are protected from harm, and 
became very tame. But this kind treat- 
ment makes them very troublesome. They 
come about the people's homes and do many 
mischievous things. A gentleman traveling in 
India had a bulldog he called Toby. Toby hated 
the mischievous monkeys, for they watched for 
occasions to play tricks on him. When asleep, 
they would tickle his nose, pull his tail, hit him 
with a stick, or any other annoying thing they 
could think of. Toby would bound after 
them so mad it would have been the last of 
Mr. Monkey, only Toby could never catch a 
monkey, though he tried his best. They were 
so nimble and active, that by the time Toby 
got well started the monkey was on the roof 
of a house, or safely perched in a tree. He 
seemed quite distressed by his failures. But 
one day Toby thought he saw a fine chance to 
get sweet revenge. An old, sleepy looking 
monkey sat on a low branch allowing his long 
tail to hang down until it nearly touched the 
ground. Toby's owner gave him a sly "sic," 
and the dog apparently understanding he must 
be very sly, crept cautiously along the ground 

Page ISO 



toward the monkey. Nearer, and nearer the 
dog crawled, until he was within reach of the 
motionless tail. Sure he had it, he made a 
bound toward the limb, no doubt determined 
to catch that tail as near the body of the beast 
as possible, but just as he had it, he hadn't. 
The monk with one hand snatched up his tail 
so suddenly that the dog did not know what 
had happened, while at the same instant, with 
his free hand the monkey hit Toby a sound 
rap on the head. Toby was disgusted; and 
with hanging head walked back to his master, 
no doubt, saying to himself: "That was your 
fault; you got me into that trouble." But the 
old monkey hardly batted one eye, and looked 
on as unconcerned and as sleepy as ever. But 
this was not the last time this trick was 
played. Toby could not refrain from repeated 
efforts to catch that tail, and the old monkey 
was always ready when opportunity offered, to 
give the dog a chance. Toby could not resist 
the temptation, but as often as he made the 
effort, the tail disappeared so suddenly and 
mysteriously, that in his confusion he never 
failed to get a slap on the head. The amusing 
part of the affair was the utter calmness and 
satirical indifference of the monkey. It was 
all so easy that he did not even seem to see 
any fun in it. But poor Toby ! He could whip 
any other bulldog he ever met, but monkeys 
he could not understand, and after each at- 
tempt would retire with his head down and a 

Page 1S1 



look of shame, that was easily understood. The 
dog had only one chance to get even with the 
monkey, and that was to treat him with utter 
indifference; but this Toby could never learn. 
He was always so cocksure he could catch that 
tail that he never failed to try, and invariably 
got his head bumped for his pains. 



Page 132 



THE STRENGTH OF AN APE 



Of all the man apes now known, the Gorilla 
is the most formidable. A full grown male 
frequently stands over five feet and a half in 
height ; but the bones of at least one have been 
found that in life stood more than six feet. 
We now know from experience that the Gorilla 
is not untamable as it was once claimed. When 
taken quite young, its ferocity can be largely 
overcome by kind treatment, but it is a morose 
and loveless creature even at best. It is not 
certain it ever walks erect in a wild state, ex- 
cept at the moment of attack when like the 
bear it will rear on its hind legs, but at other 
times it rests its knuckles on the ground or 
supports itself from a branch or by leaning on 
a stick. When enraged it beats its breast with 
its fists, until, as travellers claim, the sound 
can be heard the distance of a mile, resembling 
that of a bass drum. When the male attacks 
a man, with its huge size, its great hairy limbs, 
and its hideous head set low down between its 
great square shoulders, no description can ex- 
ceed the horror of its appearance. When it is 
recalled that this monster lives in the depths 
of forests where the light is so dim that it is 
difficult to see any object clearly at a distance 

Page 133 



of more than a few yards, it is not a cause of 
wonder, that the natives have invested it with 
a horror greater than that of any other living 
creature. It is claimed by some writers that 
this monster will secrete himself in the lower 
branches of a tree overlooking a path, and 
when a human being passes, drop one of its 
long arms suddenly, and clutch its victim by 
the throat. It then drags its prey up into the 
tree to its lurking place. It is said to carry 
off women into the forest and keep them, 
bringing food to prevent their starvation. 
These accounts have been doubted by modern 
writers. But there is on record an account of 
a female that captured a man and carried him 
to her home in the forest, carefully guarding 
him night and day. She fed her victim on 
fruits and vegetables on which she herself 
lived; but he finally succeeded in making his 
escape. The circumference of the middle fin- 
ger near the first joint of one that was meas- 
ured, was found to be six inches: and its 
strength far exceeding that of any other of 
the monkey tribe, or of the strongest man. 
These animals do not fear to attack any other 
animal, and it is claimed they will put the wild 
elephant to flight. In defense they employ a 
huge club with tremendous force. 

For their homes they entwine the small 
branches of trees together, and thus make a 
kind of swinging bed on which they sleep. 
They are very fond of their young, which re- 

Page 134 



main with the parents until fully grown, and 
they will fight for them until killed. Whether 
the Gorilla in combat would prove superior to 
the African lion is not known; since they do 
not occupy the same territory, and are not 
known to ever come together in battle. 



Page 135 



BUTTER BIRDS 



In Caripe, South Africa, there is a great 
cave, noted for its extent, and celebrated for 
its strange inhabitants. From its dark re- 
cesses flows a river, and in its gloomy depths, 
the superstitious inhabitants surrounding it 
suppose the spirits of their departed ancestors 
reside. The name of this cavern is Guacharo; 
which means literally, fat; and was, no doubt, 
suggested by the great quantities of fat de- 
rived annually from the thousands of birds 
that live in this cavern. The cave is so straight 
that a traveler can enter quite a distance with- 
out needing artificial light. As he proceeds 
over the somewhat rough ground that forms 
the bed of the river, he begins to hear from 
afar the hoarse cries of the Guacharo birds; 
and when he has arrived at the dark part of 
the cavern, the noise is so terrific as to be 
alarming. Thousands upon thousands of these 
birds utter their piercing cries together; and 
the screams echoing from the surrounding 
walls make the place a perfect pandemonium. 
When it is remembered that this noise takes 
place in perfect darkness, it is not difficult to 
understand the superstitious terrors which the 
ignorant natives associate with this place. 

Page 136 



These are the butter birds; a mysterious 
fowl about as large as our domestic fowl, that 
lives exclusively in these dark recesses, com- 
ing out only in the night. Their wings expand 
to about three feet and a half, and in their 
habits they resemble the owl or night-hawks. 
They live entirely on fruits, seeds and nuts, 
and have powerful beaks with which they 
break the shells. Once a year, in midsummer, 
the natives make a raid on these nesting birds 
and secure the young squabs for the fat. This 
is found underneath the bird's body; it is care- 
fully removed and melted in pots of clay at the 
mouth of the cavern. It is so pure that it can 
be kept for a long time without becoming ran- 
cid. The young birds are secured by knocking 
down the nests from the roof of the cavern 
with long poles prepared for that purpose. 
Many of these nests are sixty or more feet 
above the river-bed. Of course, the young bird 
is instantly killed, and except for its fat is of 
no further use. This fat is known as the but- 
ter of the Guacharo, and at the Convent of 
Caripe no other oil is ever used in the kitchens 
of the Monks. 



Page 137 



CATCHING WILD ELEPHANTS 



Elephants abound in both Africa and India, 
but it may not be generally known that the 
Africans never catch and tame them as do the 
natives of India. Some have supposed it is 
because those of Africa are more incorrigible 
than the others; but this is not the case. 
Rather it is for want of ability on the part 
of the Africans. Nevertheless, they do cap- 
ture them for their ivory, and also as a supply 
of food, and prefer to capture the very worst, 
since these are generally the largest bulls, and 
have the finest tusks. These are known as the 
"rouges." They are great leaders of the herd, 
that have lost their place to some more pow- 
erful fighter, and have left the herd in dis- 
gust, ever afterward to seem as if holding 
spite at every living creature. They tear up 
the gardens of the natives and become dan- 
gerous neighbors. When a "rogue" elephant 
is known to be in the neighborhood, it is a 
cause of general rejoicing in a Hindu village. 
Elephant hunters now take two, sometimes 
three "koomkies" (female elephants). They 
ride these "koomkies" to the place where the 
"rogue" is known to be, keeping themselves 
closely covered, lying prone on the "koomkies' " 

Page 138 



backs. These "koomkies" understand the game, 
and will help the hunters to disguise them- 
selves by holding branches over them, or 
placing their trunks in such positions as to 
shield them from the "rogue's" sight when 
they are on the ground. When the "rogue" 
sees the female elephants near he is again 
happy, for now he imagines he can again rule 
a herd. The "koomkies" caress him, play with 
him, surrounding him in such a manner that 
they shield from sight the hunters, who slip 
down and pass ropes around the "rogue's" legs. 
To his hind legs they fasten a hinged yoke 
of wood filled with spikes; and having been 
careful to entice him near a tree during the 
performance, this yoke is securely fastened to 
the tree, and hunters and "koomkies" bid the 
"rogue" goodbye, leaving him to his fate. If 
he was furious before, he is doubly so now. 
Before, he was only a disappointed lover, driven 
off from the herd; now he is both disappointed 
and confined. He storms, and trumpets, and 
rages; tears up the ground, and if it was pos- 
sible to get at the tree would pull it up by the 
roots, but it is all in vain; and the more he 
struggles the worse he hurts his hind legs with 
the spiked yoke. Worn out at last, hungry and 
disheartened, he is completely conquered. When 
this occurs the "koomkies" and hunters come 
back and give him food; in this way they con- 
tinue from day to day until the "rogue" has 
learned he is dependent on these visits for 

Page 189 



food and all the companionship he can have, 
and little by little he is tamed and becomes 
tractable; then his legs are fastened to the 
legs of one of the "koomkies" and he is marched 
off to his new quarters. Sometimes he still 
resists, and is then dragged by the "koomkies," 
and pushed from behind by another elephant. 
He is now treated with kindness but firmness, 
and soon learns to take his place and to do his 
work with the rest of the tame elephants. 

Another mode of catching these animals is 
to build a strong enclosure and drive a herd 
into it. Those selected for capture are kept 
in confinement until subdued by hunger. Yet 
another mode is much as the wild horse was 
once caught on the plains. The hunters ride 
tame elephants after them, and throw ropes 
with nooses over their heads. When these ropes 
are tightly drawn it chokes the captive, and 
causes it to stop its flight. However the 
hunter attempts the capture of this wild ani- 
mal he must depend absolutely on the tame 
elephant to make the capture possible, and 
the knowledge and obedience of these tame 
creatures are wonderful. An instance occurred, 
where during a stormy night an elephant got 
loose and escaped into the forest. Four years 
afterward when a herd was driven into an en- 
closure, the owner of the lost animal, thought 
he recognized it in the herd captured. He 
climbed on the enclosure and called the name 
of his lost animal. It instantly showed that 

Page HO 



it recognized his voice. He went inside, ordered 
it to kneel, it obeyed, and climbing on its back 
its owner rode it out. Another instance is 
mentioned where a "koomkie" was missing for 
several days and it was later found that she 
had gone out into the jungle alone and had 
tied a wild elephant to a tree. 



Page HI 



TWO PATHETIC DEATHS OF DOGS 



An affecting account of the death of an old 
hound is given by his owner in the Animal 
World. Hector was a long tried and trusted 
dog, a leader of a pack of hounds. At last the 
old hound became too infirm for the field and 
was left at home when the pack went out. 
Year by year his feebleness grew upon him, 
but he was well cared for, and passed his time 
mainly in sleeping by the kitchen fire. His 
long absence from the field where he had so 
often been heard in the lead, caused his fine, 
deep-toned note to be almost forgotten. "But 
one afternoon," says the owner, "I was sitting 
in my room writing, when suddenly I heard 
the splendid note, as I thought at that moment, 
of a strange hound, and stopped to listen again, 
when, instead of it being repeated, the whole 
pack in the kennel near my house gave one 
burst as if in full cry, and as the sounds died 
away and all was again hushed to silence, my 
huntsman rushed into the room saying : 'Hector 
is dead, sir.' The splendid note which I thought 
that of a strange hound, had been the leader's 
farewell call to the pack, and they had heard 
and answered." Just like many a human being, 
doubtless, the old hound in his last delirium, 

Page U2 



dreamed he was again in the lead on the 
mountain trail, and in sight of the final goal. 

Another case is that of an English gentle- 
man who was traveling on horseback accom- 
panied only by his faithful dog. Having oc- 
casion at noon to stop for his lunch and to 
rest his steed, there being no inn nor residence 
near, he selected a grassy spot, tied his horse 
where he could eat grass, and seated himself 
under a tree. While eating his lunch, which 
he had carried with him, he took the occasion 
to take out his wallet and look over some 
papers it contained. The dog rested near and 
watched the performance. When the traveler 
again started the dog began to act most 
strangely; jumping up at its master and catch- 
ing at his foot. The farther the man rode the 
more violent became the dog's action. He 
would bite at his master's foot, jump at the 
mouth of the horse, catch the bridle and run 
back a little distance and then return more 
violent than before. The traveler finally con- 
cluded the dog had gone mad, and fearing it 
might bite his horse, there was no other alter- 
native than to dispatch it. Drawing his pistol 
he shot the dog, and leaving it lying by the 
road-side went on his journey with a heavy 
heart; but he could not avoid musing on the 
strange actions of the animal, and at last it 
dawned on him, perhaps he had left something 
at his resting place. Feeling for his wallet it 
was gone. He hurried back to the spot where 

Page US 



he had used it, and there to his unspeakable 
sorrow laid his wallet, and his faithful dog 
by its side with one paw on it. At the ap- 
proach of his master the faithful creature 
looked up in his master's face, joyfully wagging 
his tail, then laid its head on the wallet and 
died. The traveler records, that he never 
could forgive himself. The faithful brute had 
more intelligence than himself, and when mor- 
tally wounded still refused to abandon his 
trust. 



Page 1U 



A HEART-BROKEN BIRD 



That animals and birds, and no doubt in- 
sects also, have the same feelings that move 
the human race, is proven by their conduct. 
The only difference we can detect is that they 
are limited in knowledge and have not audible 
speech with which to express them. They 
suffer bereavement and mourn their dead. 
They often show amazing gratitude for help 
given them, and in their way often ask for it. 
A gentleman tells a sad story of a little mother 
bird. For some time the weather had been 
very warm, and a window in an upper chamber 
had been left open. When it became cooler he 
went and closed the window, and sometime 
afterward noticed a little bird dashing itself 
against the glass on the outside. It would go 
away for an instant, then come again, as if 
determined to enter the room. Both sympathy 
and curiosity were aroused. What did that 
little bird want? He went to the room and 
opened the window, and immediately the little 
bird flew in, going straight to a spot where it 
had built its nest some time before, and that 
the gentleman had not observed. It sat on the 
edge of the nest a moment, then drooping, it 
looked very sad, and fluttered down to the floor. 

Page 145 



As it did not make an effort to rise again the 
gentleman picked it up. The little bird was 
dead. Examining the nest, the gentleman 
found the mother bird and four baby birds, all 
dead. The closed window had shut in that 
little mother, and unable to get food for her- 
self or her family, all had starved. When the 
window was at last opened, the male had 
hurried to the nest with food, but it was then 
too late. His mate and all her brood had 
perished, and the little bird with food in its 
beak fell down to the floor broken-hearted 
and died also. 

The gentleman looked at the dead birds and 
cried. He even reproached himself for his 
carelessness in not having more carefully ex- 
amined the room before closing the window. 
And who was this gentleman? A noble 
Englishman, who rose from a poor boy to be 
a great mechanic, and who has been called the 
"Father of the Railroad." He tenderly lifted 
the little bird from the floor and tried to re- 
vive it but it was in vain. For days this great 
man mourned; and yet at that time the wis- 
dom and force of character of George Stephe- 
son was changing the history of the whole 
world. Greatness does not consist in indiffer- 
ence to small things, and the greatest men 
who have lived have always been most sympa- 
thetic and tender toward the lower animals and 
birds. No humane person is ever indifferent 
to the suffering of any living thing; and no 

Page 146 



one, not even a true sportsman, gives anything 
needless pain. 



Page U7 



THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT 



That there are sea-serpents, many of them, 
and that the bite of these serpents is danger- 
ous, are no longer unsettled questions. They 
have been found, captured, carefully examined, 
and reported, and their existence is no longer 
doubted; but is there a monster sea-serpent? 
Those that have been discovered are small like 
our ordinary land serpents, and bear no rela- 
tion to the great animal so often reported as 
seen by captains and crews of vessels at sea. 
For many years past these reports were con- 
sidered the myths of sailors that it was sup- 
posed had their origin in the old Scandinavian 
Mythology, which described a huge sea-mon- 
ster living at the bottom of the sea, with its 
coil encircling the earth. But since these re- 
ports have continued to come from many 
sources, describing this animal somewhat mi- 
nutely, as seen at various places, and under cir- 
cumstances where there could be no mistake, 
this opinion is no longer accepted. It is now 
pretty well settled that there is at least one 
enormous snake of the sea. It has been seen 
so often, and has been reported at so many 
places by sea captains whose authority cannot 
be doubted, that it must be true. The descrip- 

Page U8 



tions of this monster do not agree in minute 
details, not even by those who claim to have 
seen it at the same time; but this is not re- 
markable since no two descriptions ever fully 
agree even when reported by eye-witnesses a 
few minutes after the occurrence described. 
This is shown in civil court examinations of wit- 
nesses, every day. On the other hand, all these 
descriptions do agree perfectly in the general 
appearance, movements, size and characteristics 
of this creature. Almost without exception it 
has been seen moving forward with head and 
body erect several feet above the surface of 
the water, indifferent to its surroundings, and 
swimming in a direct line as if bent on some 
special mission, while its size and length always 
have been estimated as large; ranging from 
sixty to one hundred feet in length, and as 
large or larger than the body of a good sized 
man. At no time has any one had a very close 
observation, though in one instance a few years 
ago, a ship captain described a sea-serpent 
passing his ship near enough for those on 
board to see its great eyes and the shape of 
its head, and to note that it had a scaly body. 
One of the earlier descriptions is by Captain 
M'Quhea. 

In 1848, Captain M'Quhea, and Lieutenant 
Drummond, of the same vessel, while sailing in 
the South Atlantic Ocean near the Tropic of 
Capricorn, not far from the African coast, saw 
this ocean mystery, and each has left a public 

Page H9 



description of the animal. The Captain says: 
"It passed rapidly, but so close under our 
lee quarter, that had it been a man of my 
acquaintance, I should have easily recognized 
his features with the naked eye; and it did 
not, either in approaching the ship or after it 
had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest 
degree from its course to the southwest, which 
it held on at the pace of from twelve to fifteen 
miles an hour, apparently on some determined 
purpose. The diameter of the serpent was 
about fifteen or sixteen inches behind the head, 
which was, without any doubt, that of a snake; 
and it was never, during the twenty minutes 
that it continued in sight of our glasses, once 
below the surface of the water; its color was 
a dark-brown, with yellowish white about the 
throat. It had no fins, but something like 
the mane of a horse, or rather, a bunch of 
sea-weed washed about its back." Lieutenant 
Drummond describes this serpent, seen at the 
same time, as at the nearest, one hundred 
yards away, and having a " back fin." This 
fin as seen by him doubtless, is the same de- 
scribed by the Captain as a " mane," or " sea- 
weed." 

A later and still more remarkable discovery 
of this monster is that reported by Captain 
Drever, of the English ship Pauline, in 1875, 
when, driven out of his course by a hurricane, 
he found himself in the midst of a herd of 
Sperm whales, that came sporting around his 

Page 150 



ship. While all hands were watching the antics 
of these animals, suddenly they beheld a sight 
that filled every man on board with terror. 
Starting up straight from the bosom of the 
deep a gigantic serpent rose, and wound itself, 
in two mighty coils around the largest whale, 
which it proceeded to crush. The whale bel- 
lowed, and in its struggles lashed the water 
into foam, but all in vain. It could not release 
the hold of its enemy; and as the struggling 
mass sank out of sight the crew heard the 
cracking of the ribs of the whale. This is a 
most unusual description. And in as much as 
it describes a scene witnessed by a ship's whole 
crew, it seems incredible, if a myth, that it 
was never denied by some of the reported wit- 
nesses. Many other still later descriptions 
have been given to the world, some so recent 
as to leave little doubt that this monster of the 
sea is not a myth of superstitious sailors, but 
one of the strange realities of Nature, yet to 
be minutely examined and reported; and it is 
not unreasonable to expect that it will not be 
long until with the improved long-range weap- 
ons and scientific aim now possible, one of 
these monsters will be captured and this sea- 
mystery of ages will be solved. 



Page 15X 



AN INTELLIGENT FOREST TREE 



There are many plants that seem to give 
evidence of feeling, and all vegetable life by- 
adapting itself to surrounding circumstances, 
and especially bending toward the light when 
growing in a darkened spot, exhibits some- 
thing akin to intelligence. But it is not gen- 
erally known that there is a forest tree that 
shows this last quality in a most wonderful 
manner. This tree grows in the forests of 
New Zealand; and one traveler has said of it, 
" It is the most unique and intelligent tree that 
ever breathed." It seems to know as much as 
some animals. It is known by name as the 
Rata tree. When it first comes through the 
ground it seems to look all around for the 
Rimu pine, another tree common in these for- 
ests. If there is one anywhere within reach 
it starts for it and climbs straight up the 
body without leaf, bud, or branch, just like a 
common vine, until its head is among the 
upper limbs of the pine. Then the Rata sends 
out branches like other trees, and at the same 
time the vine-like stalk from the ground up 
begins to push out from each side a line of 
aerial roots which gradually creep around the 
body of the pine until they meet on the oppo- 

Page 152 



site side. There they grow together into a 
solid mass, forming a complete case around 
the doomed tree which in time it kills and en- 
tirely consumes. 

But if the Rata cannot find a pine to thus 
smother, it grows up a respectable tree like 
others of the surrounding forest, and becomes 
valuable, being greatly sought for ship build- 
ing. When the life of the pine thus encircled 
has been destroyed, the tree is not only killed 
and prevented from growth, but is consumed 
— eaten up— by the Rata, and the Rata is left 
a great hollow trunk. If this story had been 
told by some ordinary sailor who might have 
seen it as many a tipler sees snakes where 
there are none, it might well be assigned to 
the realm of myth. But it is recorded by a 
traveler known to be of the highest intelli- 
gence and veracity, who says : " Now, if this 
story of the performance of a tree had been 
told me without my having seen anything of 
it, I most likely should not have believed it. 
* * * But I have seen the Rata tree in 
every stage of its growth; as a slender vine, 
as a stalk with a set of comb-like teeth on each 
side, then with the rootlets half way around, 
and growing together at all points, and finally 
as a great hollow tree eight to ten feet in 
diameter.' ' 

If this is not intelligence, what is it? We 
have here the same evidence of choice we 
find in animal life; and if choice, then there 

Page 153 



is intelligence, for we know of no choice with- 
out intelligence. If any animal should habitu- 
ally seek out some other animal and by some 
specific method destroy it, and consume it as 
food — of which we have very many examples 
— we would say at once this was done design- 
edly, and intelligently, because done of choice, 
since choice is preference, and preference is 
the result of reason. 



Page 15 U 



THE TOILET OF A FLY 



The fly attends to its toilet as carefully as 
any fastidious maiden. It does not need a 
looking-glass, for it has learned to do its work 
without that luxury. He is a vain fellow, and 
wabbles his little round head from side to 
side, just as if he wished to " show off." He 
is a most dirty fellow, also, for he does not 
hesitate to feed on the most detestable diet, 
and sometimes gets smeared all over, so that 
he needs to clean up very often. After a day 
of dissipation he selects a clean spot and, be- 
ginning his toilet, he never stops if not dis- 
turbed, until he has completed the cleansing 
and arranging of his whole body. Resting on 
his front and middle legs, he throws his hind 
legs rapidly over his body, bending down his 
frail wings, scraping them as if he would 
break them off; then changing the process he 
rubs them from beneath bending them in re- 
verse order. Then he slips his legs under the 
wings, pushing them along the body, giving it 
a thorough cleaning. Occasionally he thrusts 
his legs forward, rubbing them together. 
When this is completed to his satisfaction, 
resting on the hind legs he begins a vigorous 
scraping of the head with his fore legs. Now 

Page 155 



he uses his proboscis, as if to dampen his legs 
very much as a dog licks his paws. Some- 
times he works so energetically, that it seems 
as if he would pull his head off. But we do 
not know that flies ever commit suicide. Some- 
times we wish they would. They remind one 
of pussy at her toilet. But work as hard as 
he will, and clean as much as he chooses, the 
fly is still a very undesirable member of the 
household. No sooner has he finished his 
toilet than he is again ready to go into the 
most detestable places, walking over filth of 
all kinds, and then he comes right back again 
into the sugar-bowl or on the molasses-can, 
without ever cleaning his feet. He falls into 
the cream pitcher, and sticks fast in the butter, 
and is a poisoner of our food. Every little boy 
and girl while about the house should have a 
fly-killer, and make it a practice to kill every 
fly they can reach. Many diseases are brought 
into homes by these foul-footed flies walking 
over our food. It does not matter how fastid- 
ious Mr. Fly is when he makes his toilet, he 
just hurries right away into the same poison 
offal, and then comes back again as filthy as 
ever. Kill him. He is good only for chicken 
feed and for the birds. And here we find a 
good reason for cultivating the friendship of 
the birds; that they may aid in getting rid of 
flies and poisonous insects. If the birds are 
treated kindly, they soon cease to fear us, but 
will come in great numbers for food, and water 

Page 156 



placed within their reach, and the number of 
flies, mosquitoes, ants, and troublesome bugs 
about our homes will be greatly reduced. Fight 
the poison-footed fly, but make friends among 
the beautiful, harmless birds. 



Page 157 



A MARVELLOUS MONKEY 



A few years ago there was a Chimpanzee 
that, under training, did many wonderful 
things. He was taken by his owner over the 
world and shown as a great curiosity. He 
was known as Consul. He dressed like a man, 
sat at the table and ate like other people, used 
his tooth-brush and manicured his finger nails, 
and not only smoked his cigarette, as other 
monkeys have been taught to do, but had 
learned the habit of smoking so well that he 
demanded his cigarette, and had to be refused 
lest he would injure his health by too much 
smoking. He would strike a match and light 
a fire, and when it burned low get wood and 
replenish it. He had 200 suits of men's cloth- 
ing which he wore both on and off the stage, 
and these he kept scrupulously clean. In the 
morning it was his custom to jump out of bed 
before his keeper, don a sweater and go 
through a regular athletic exercise, after 
which he takes a sponge bath, and is then 
ready for breakfast. It was said, this he 
never neglected. He ate with a knife and 
fork like any well-educated child, and signed 
contracts with his own hand like any other 
business man. His presence anywhere always 

Page 158 



created amazement, for he was a perfect 
monkey gentleman. Which is strong evidence 
that animals are not the subjects of unreason- 
ing instinct. They are capable of intellectual 
cultivation; and many closely associated with 
the human race — especially the dog and the 
horse, man's most intimate animal companions 
— can be taught many things just as the child 
in the public schools and in the home, is 
taught. Instinct is the seed from which rea- 
son is developed; the first life-movements 
with which all living things enter conscious 
activity; it is not guided by the will, but is 
spontaneous. When the will becomes active, 
action is no longer simple instinct, but is then 
guided by a choice between things, a design 
toward an end, and an arrangement of plan. 
This is reason. 



Page 159 



A DOG THAT SPEAKS GERMAN 



It is reported that a large mastiff is owned 
by a lady in Germany that can talk — not with 
his tongue, but with his paws. The facts as 
reported seem so utterly unbelievable that was 
it not that they have been testified to by the 
highest scientific authority, and widely pub- 
lished, they would not be given a place in this 
collection. This dog's name is Rolf, and he is 
almost entirely self-educated. He has been 
the constant companion of the children of Dr. 
Moeckel, the wife of a prominent lawyer. Dur- 
ing the lesson hour of the little daughter the 
dog was allowed to sit by her side, and it 
was noticed that he paid very strict attention 
to the lesson. It was during one of these 
lessons that the dog's superior intelligence was 
accidentally discovered. The little girl was 
unable to answer a simple question in mental 
arithmetic. When it had been explained she 
responded : " How stupid ! Why, even Rolf 
could answer that, couldn't you, Rolf ? " To 
the utter amazement of both mother and child, 
Rolf raised his paw and beat out the exact 
number to the problem. This was thought an 
accident; but when they proposed another 
problem he correctly answered in the same 

Page 160 



manner. A third and fourth followed, and all 
were quickly and correctly answered with the 
paw. Frau Moeckel then concluded she would 
try what could be done with some training. 
An alphabet was arranged and Rolf was 
asked : " How many paws do you want for A ? 
How many for B? How many for C?" The 
dog himself intimating how many paws should 
indicate each letter. It has been noticed that 
in spelling he omits all useless letters. 

Many of the things reported done by this 
dog would be at once assigned to the realm 
of myth, was it not that they have been tested 
and reported under conditions that forbid this. 
The report of a Professor from Basle reads 
like a romance. He says : " Frau Moeckel has 
just received a letter addressed to Rolf from 
a gentleman who had been to see the dog, and 
of whom Rolf was very fond. This letter 
reads : ' Dear Rolf : — I still think very often 
of you, and how kind and nice you worked for 
me. I have told our Pick (the gentleman's 
own dog) about it. He cannot read, speak, 
or calculate yet. We also have a Dachshund, 
but, I am sorry to say, he is sick. Many 
greetings.' Before my eyes Rolf dictated with 
his paw a reply, which translated, is : * Lib : 
big bei mudr gomn irun dagi aug dogdr holn 
grus. (Dear Pick: My mother come learn, 
also Dackel (short for Dachshund) Get doc- 
tor. Greeting. Rolf/ The Professor then 
asked Rolf why he (the Professor) had come 

Page 161 



to see him ? The dog answered : " To see 
Rolf work." The letter M was written on a 
piece of paper ,and Rolf was asked to spell 
some word beginning with this letter. The 
dog answered, "Mouse, Man, Michel. ,, The 
last is the name of one of the house servants. 
When a motor car passed the house he was 
asked what passed, and he replied, " Audo." 
Rolf considers himself, Daisy, the cat, and 
another little house dog, Iola, superior to other 
animals, as will be seen by his answers. Ger- 
mans make a distinction in the matter of eat- 
ing, between animals and human beings, using 
the word "fressen" for the former, and "essen" 
for the latter. Speaking one day on the sub- 
ject of eating, Rolf interposed with the word 
"essen," showing clearly that he understood 
the difference. " Then it isn't 'fressen' ? How 
about Iola ? Iola 'essen' and Daisy 'essen,' " 
was the reply. 

One day Herr Moeckel informed the family 
that a cousin of his had just become engaged 
to an English girl by the name of Daisy. Im- 
mediately the dog began to spell by raps and 
spelled out : " She has the same name as the 
cat." Until Rolf pointed it out, no one had 
thought of it. One of the most remarkable 
of his answers was when asked what Autumn 
meant, and he answered, " When they find the 
apples." An amusing thing occurred when giv- 
ing Iola a bath; a flea was found, upon which 
comment was made, when Rolf began to spell 

Page 162 



with his paw. (He calls himself Lol.) His 
communication read, " Lol viel f loh ; Iola viel- 
er." Lol has fleas, but Iola has more. The 
dog is fond of pictures, and understands what 
they mean. Shown a picture of a baby in a 
bath, he was asked what it was. He replied, 
"Carl in bath"; which was correct. He was 
shown the name of the town in which he lives 
and asked to name it. He spelled out "Mann- 
heim," which was correct; but after looking in- 
tently at the rest of the printed page for 
some time he added, "the rest I cannot under- 
stand, which is very funny." At last accounts 
Rolf was taking the lessons in Geography and 
Grammar with the Doctor's children, and it is 
hoped the dog will yet learn to read. This 
dog and Bozzie, owned in Chicago, in many 
things greatly resembled, and in both instances 
the experiments led some to believe that dog- 
knowledge is obtained through telepathy. They 
read the answers from the mind of the ques- 
tioner. This is certainly not unlikely, since 
all animals below man seem to possess this 
faculty by which they communicate with each 
other. 



Page 163 



AN INTELLIGENT GOOSE 



It is generally conceded that of all the birds 
or animals, the goose is the most dumb. The 
very name has become a term meaning intel- 
lectual stupidity. A gentlman accustomed to 
train birds and animals has left on record the 
statement that of all he ever handled, the 
goose seemed to have the least ability to under- 
stand. But this at last, may be a slander on 
the goose. The following story is taken from 
a number of the St. Nicholas. 

"This goose made its appearance near Quebec 
over fifty years ago, when some British troops 
had been sent out to put down a rebellion of 
the colonists. A certain farm in the neighbor- 
hood, suspected of being a resort for the in- 
surgents, was surrounded by sentries placed 
some distance apart; on one day the sentry 
whose post was near the gate of the farm, 
heard a singular noise. A fine plump goose 
soon appeared on the run and making for the 
spot where the soldiers stood, and close behind 
in pursuit came a hungry fox. The sentry's 
first impulse was to shoot the thievish animal 
and rescue the goose, but since the noise of the 
gun would have brought out the guard on a 
false alarm, he was forced to deny himself 

Page 16 'U 



this satisfaction. The fox was gaining on its 
prey, when the goose, in a frantic attempt to 
reach the sentry-box, ran its head and neck 
between the soldier's legs just as the pursuer 
was on the point of seizing it. Fortunately, 
the guard could use his bayonet without 
making a disturbance, and did so with such 
good advantage that the pursuit was soon 
ended. The rescued goose, evidently animated 
by the liveliest gratitude, rubbed its head 
against its deliverer's legs, and performed 
other joyful and kitten-like antics. Then de- 
liberately taking up its residence at the gar- 
rison post, it walked up and down with the 
sentry while he was on duty, and thus ac- 
companied each successive sentry who appeared 
to patrol that beat. 

"About two months later the goose really 
saved the life of its particular friend in a very 
remarkable way. The soldier was again on 
duty at the same place, and on a moonlight 
night, when the moon was frequently ob- 
scured by passing clouds, the enemy had 
formed a plan to surprise and kill him. His 
feathered devotee was beside him as usual, 
while he paced his lonely beat, challenging at 
every sound, and then standing at ease before 
the sentry-box, the goose always stood at ease 
too, and it made a very comical picture. His 
enemies now were stealing closer and closer 
to him. When about to spring on the sentry 
with uplifted knife, the goose covered itself 

Page 165 



with glory by suddenly rising and flapping its 
wings in the face of the would-be assassins. 
They rushed blindly forward; but the sentry 
succeeded in shooting one of the party, and 
bayoneting another, while the goose continued 
to confuse and worry the remainder, until they 
fled from the scene in confusion." That goose 
was worth having; not because it laid the 
"golden egg," but because capable of doing a 
golden service. 



Page 166 



CAPTURED BY ANTS 



The smallest things in this world become 
most formidable enemies when in overwhelm- 
ing numbers. A few years ago a ship laden 
with lumber arrived in Liverpool. No sooner 
had it landed than all hands from the captain 
to the cook, rushed frantically on shore, as 
though they were pursued by a deadly enemy. 
As a matter of fact, the vessel was literally 
swarming with millions of hungry Jamaica 
ants. They had invaded the locker, dived into 
the sugar barrels, bored into the reserve boxes 
of "hard tack," penetrated the pockets of the 
crew, climbed the spars by millions, were cut- 
ting up the sails, boring into every box, trunk, 
hammock, and extra wardrobe, and eating up 
all the ship's food supply. The ship encoun- 
tered a West India hurricane on its voyage 
and this somewhat lessened these attacks, as 
it blew millions of the pest to sea, having 
drenched the ship from stem to stern, killing 
other millions in the vessel; and the sailors 
hoped the end of their trouble had come. But 
after the storm, these ravages began again 
with renewed energy, and the crew were nearly 
crazy. They could neither eat nor sleep, nor 
rest anywhere. The marauders were in their 

Page 167 



hair, in their pockets, in their underclothing, 
and the sailors had difficulty in keeping the 
pests out of their ears, eyes, and mouths. 
When the vessel landed, the captain stated 
it was still swarming with millions of these 
insects. The ship had been loaded with a 
cargo of logwood that it was supposed had 
been secured originally from the vicinity of 
some of the large ant-hills for which Jamaica 
is noted. The captain declared, that in all his 
experience at sea he had never encountered 
anything like it, and hoped in all the years to 
come he might be spared a like experience. 
These ant kingdoms abound in that country; 
their ant battles with each other are wonderful 
encounters, sometimes lasting for many days, 
in which many thousands of these insects en- 
gage. The most warlike are the Ecitons, 
which seem to have no other business but to 
make war on other ants. When on one of 
their forays these march through the country 
in regular order, with their flanks protected 
by a giant ant much larger and stronger than 
the rest of the colony. Travelers describe these 
thousands of large- jawed giant warriors on the 
flanks of the ant army as looking like the 
officers in command. The ants of the main 
body have other work to do, such as foraging 
for food; but these big fellows do nothing but 
guard the flanks of the army from the enemy. 
When the army approaches another colony, 
its home is immediately surrounded, and the 

Page 168 



approaching enemy lays regular siege to the 
ant-hill. They begin by mining from the out- 
side. Some do the digging while others carry 
away the dirt. When a breach is finally opened, 
assault after assault is made until all the sur- 
rounding ground is covered with dead ants. 
The assailants being professional fighters are 
always successful in the end, when they carry 
off all the booty to their own homes. It is not 
difficult to understand the condition a ship 
at sea would be in with millions of these de- 
termined fighters aboard, compelled to secure 
their food wherever they could find it. 



Page 169 



A GOOD NATURED GRIZZLY 



It has long been a common belief among 
writers, and often claimed by hunters, that the 
grizzly bear could never be met in the forests 
without being attacked by it, unless this was 
avoided in a hasty retreat to a place of safety; 
and that when wounded this animal always 
fought to the death. That it is one of the most 
formidable animals on our continent, and the 
most dangerous to attack, is true; its tenacity 
of life is very great, and when wounded it 
often does fight to the bitter end. It has been 
claimed that when struck with a bullet, this 
animal will fly round, tear up the ground, bite 
at anything within reach, then sniff the air 
for a moment, and if it catches the scent of 
its enemy will at once rush upon it. But these 
statements are only true in part. Sometimes it 
acts in this way, and sometimes in quite the 
reverse order. A hunter who shot a grizzly, 
browsing on the mountain-side with a young 
cub near her, reports that the moment she 
was hit, she whirled round, began slapping her 
babe, made it climb a tree, and then hurried off 
up the mountain. Others report, they have 
wounded the grizzly and had it act in a similar 
manner. The facts seem to be, that if in close 

Page 170 



quarters and wounded, they will not run, but 
will turn to fight it out, and in such cases the 
hunter is in great danger. It is further true, 
that no wild animal has any specific mode of 
acting, always followed; but it may be stated 
with absolute certainty that there is little 
danger from any animal on this continent if 
unmolested, unless it is ravenously hungry or 
accompanied by its young. Every wild thing 
is afraid of man, and needs only to get the 
scent of his presence to make a hasty retreat. 
Yet, sometimes they will do very strange 
things. A hunter sat with his back against 
a log at night before his fire, and without noise 
a black bear slipped up behind and smelt of 
his head, and then tore off through the woods 
as if mad. Cougars have been known to follow 
the tracks of a traveler in the snow for many 
miles, but never coming within sight. Two 
prospectors were in the mountains of British 
Columbia, and on their way out, when one day 
they stopped about noon to lunch. They were 
unarmed, having nothing but their shovels and 
picks, and their packs with blankets and food 
upon their backs. One of them had just taken 
off his pack, the other had not stopped to un- 
load, but was making a fire to cook their 
bacon, when they heard a noise very near them 
in some bushes, and immediately a huge grizzly 
walked up, prancing along sidewise like a good 
natured dog, and when within two or three 
feet of the man without the pack, stood up on 

Page 171 



its hind legs. This man had just taken a small 
sack of flour out of his pack, and having at the 
time nothing else in his hand, threw it at the 
grizzly's face. The bear caught it just like a 
boy catches a ball, remained standing, and 
began tearing the paper sack to pieces, while 
both men hastily retreated, the unloaded man 
cutting the straps of the other's pack, and 
both leaving everything behind. Some distance 
away they looked back and saw the bear tear- 
ing away at one of the packs. That was the 
last view they had of bear or property, and 
were right glad of the riddance; but they had 
to make a two day's tramp without blankets 
or anything to eat, before they were out of the 
mountains. In this case, evidently, the bear 
was not mad, nor did it want to fight. It was 
hungry, and no doubt smelt their bacon, and 
wanted it — and after they left, certainly got 
• it. Had they given it the bacon, they would 
not have been molested, at least while the 
bacon lasted. As it was, they had ample time 
to get away, and no doubt the bear was as well 
satisfied to have them go, as they were to leave. 
It is quite certain that when wild animals thus 
deliberately approach one in the forest, if they 
have not been disturbed, it is not for fight, 
but for help; generally they want food, and in 
such cases if food was given them they would 
do exactly as this grizzly did, eat the food and 
pay no attention to the intruder on their wild 
life. Nevertheless, it is a most foolish thing 

Page 172 



to go into the mountains, or anywhere else 
where dangerous wild animals have their 
homes, unarmed. No one can ever certainly 
decide in advance what may happen, nor what 
moment his life may depend on the ability 
to shoot his foe. In this instance mentioned, 
while the bear examined the flour sack, if its 
owner had been armed with a good Colt re- 
volver, he did not need to move from his 
position, but could have shot the bear through 
the bead without any danger of a miss, since 
he was within two feet of his target, and the 
animal was careless of his presence. Of course, 
this would have required a little nerve, but 
what man is there in the habit of spending 
days and nights in the mountain forests, that 
is without nerve ? Such men do not seek these 
wild places. Only very young grizzlies can 
climb trees. When grown they are too large 
and heavy, and by climbing, when in great 
danger from a wounded animal, hunters some- 
times escape; but this may become an em- 
barrassing position, especially if without his 
gun or having no more ammunition, as a 
wounded animal has been known to lie down 
under the tree and begin an uncertain period 
of "watchful waiting." 



Page 173 



A SOLDIER'S FAITHFUL DOG 



Soldiers always like to have something with 
them to pet. Their lives in camp are very 
monotonous, and a dog, or cat, or even a bird 
is a welcome companion. It is reported that 
in the late war with Germany, a French 
soldier's dog followed him into the trenches and 
remained a faithful companion through all the 
terrible artillery firing. He refused to be 
driven out and so was allowed to remain. The 
artillery used is so large that often an ex- 
ploding shell striking a trench, will not only 
wound and kill many men, but literally bury 
some of them. One day a shell fell into the 
trench where this soldier and his dog were, and 
killed many men. It wounded many others 
also, and tore such a hole in the earth that 
some, both wounded and killed, were covered 
with dirt. Among those wounded was the 
French soldier. He was so badly hurt that 
he could not rise, and his face and body were 
almost out of sight under the earth. He must 
soon have suffocated in this condition, even if 
he had not been otherwise hurt. But his dog 
instantly saw the situation, and began digging 
at the earth, until at last it succeeded in un- 
covering the soldier's face, and this kept him 

Page 17 U 



alive. But the dog was not content with this 
help; running here and there among the 
soldiers further down the line, tugging at their 
trousers and coat-sleeves, until one of them at 
last followed to see what he wanted, the faith- 
ful dog was not long in showing, for he led the 
soldier to his wounded master, who was just 
recovering consciousness. The dog had saved 
his life, and now others began to unearth him, 
and give "first aid" treatment; then the soldier 
was placed aboard a train in the rear of the 
line and taken to a hospital not far from Paris. 
No further attention was given to the dog ; but 
the animal was not to be left behind, for in 
some way he managed to follow, and crawl 
unseen into the car with his master, and there 
he sat by the side of the wounded soldier 
during all that slow long journey. When the 
hospital was reached his master's leg was am- 
putated. The dog was not allowed to see the 
operation, but he had shown such devotion and 
sympathy, and, had done such a noble work 
in saving the life of his master, when there was 
no one else to help, that none had the heart 
to deny him his right to still stay near. So 
the attendants found a box, and allowed him 
to remain in the kitchen, and, twice a day he 
was taken to the soldier's cot. The report 
was that the soldier recovered, and that not 
only had his faithful dog saved his life on the 
battlefield, but the continued visits of the 
animal at his bed-side helped him to recover 
from his wound. 
Page 175 



A FRIGHTENED TRAVELER 



A gentleman not long since, who has mining 
property in British Columbia, had gone to visit 
it during the winter, and after a snow storm. 
One day he was deliberately walking along a 
mountain trail, thinking of no danger, and in 
no hurry. After he had gone some distance, 
the trail winding in and out, up and down, as 
mountain trails usually do, he reached a long 
stretch of pathway, on a high ridge, and look- 
ing back, to his consternation, saw three black 
bears following him. They did not seem in any 
hurry to overtake the man, but he did not 
enjoy the idea of their companionship, and 
began to hasten his steps. He was entirely 
unarmed and defenseless. After going some 
distance at a much quicker speed, he again 
looked back, only to find that his unwelcome 
followers were still jogging along, and evi- 
dently had quickened their pace also, for they 
were nearer than when last seen. Just what 
to do did not seem clear. Indeed, there was 
nothing to do but to get away in some manner. 
Again he hastened his steps, now almost run- 
ning, and the faster and farther he went, the 
worse his fright. The trail was now so crooked 
he could not see far enough to certainly tell 

Page 176 



just how near the bears were, and his imagin- 
ation did the rest. At length, reaching another 
high ridge and a straight road, for the third 
time he looked back only to see his followers 
still jogging along. Out of breath, out of 
courage, and with muscles wearied, and no 
goal in sight, and with a boundless imagina- 
tion, the case had grown desperate. He could 
not climb a tree with any hope of success, for 
the black bear is a good climber, and to get 
up a tree and have three bears climb after 
him, was a thought quite enough to break the 
stoutest heart. What was he to do? It did 
not matter, that the three bears did not seem 
at all anxious to overhaul him, or they might 
have done so before he spied them, or any 
time afterward during the long race. They 
were bears, and that settled the question. 
Coming at last to a place where there was a 
great ravine, almost perpendicular, on one side 
of the ridge, in which the snow had drifted 
many feet thick, and that presented a long 
steep icy surface, for there was a hard crust on 
the snow, our traveler determined to try escape 
down a toboggan-slide. He got over on the 
icy surface, sat down, and away he went like 
a shooting star, from the heavens above to the 
depths below. Landing in the soft snow at the 
bottom of the ravine, he crawled out perfectly 
safe from the three bears; for they had too 
much sense to attempt to toboggan it in pur- 
suit. But now our traveler was in a worse pre- 
pare 177 



dicament than before. At the bottom of a 
narrow gorge, between high mountains, in deep 
snow, without a trail to lead him out, and not 
knowing where to go, he was in far more 
danger than when fleeing from the bears. For 
three days he wandered in the mountain fast- 
nesses, beset with the constant fear there might 
be other bears, and if not, he must soon perish 
for want of food. After a frightful exper- 
ience, he finally succeeded in finding his way 
out to safety. And had he known it, he was in 
no danger when followed. If he had hidden 
behind a log, and when the bears came up, 
suddenly jumped out and boo hooed, they 
would have scampered. No doubt, it was a 
mother, and two grown cubs, following out of 
curiosity. 



Page 178 



SOLDIER DOGS 



Dogs have long been found very valuable 
in the armies of Europe. They have never 
been used in this country, because we are not 
a warlike nation, and keep no large standing 
army. When this nation has been compelled 
to go to war, it has depended on volunteers 
who have to be trained quickly, and as there 
is no standing army-life, save small garrisons 
here and there throughout the country, there 
never has been opportunity for training dogs, 
nor have they been regarded of much use. 
In Napoleon's disastrous retreat from Moscow, 
it is said dogs often led wounded and starving 
soldiers to places of safety and food. In 1840 
a dog named Aia, became famous. He was 
only one of many in his regiment. They were 
then used in patrol and guard duty, principally 
at night. In the present European war there 
are thousands of dogs used. The French army 
has a Dog Division, and each dog has a special 
military suit, consisting of a white blanket on 
which is a red cross. Each one carries a flask 
containing some stimulent. These dogs are for 
helping to rescue the wounded. Some are 
trained for one service and some for another, 
and one of the requirements of all is,that they 

Page 179 



must not bark. If they did this they would 
disclose the location of the troops, and the 
places of the big guns. Each army must con- 
ceal itself as much as possible from the other, 
only when hotly engaged. These dogs draw 
carts, assist ambulance men, and are often sent 
with dispatches to places where it is considered 
too dangerous for a soldier to go. Sometimes 
they are killed when on this duty and at other 
times they are wounded just as the soldiers 
are. Each dog carries a complete first aid 
dressing outfit, and has a pocket under his 
collar where a message can be placed. There 
is a demand in the French army for more dogs 
than can be easily secured. In the month of 
July, two hundred and fifty patrol dogs were 
sent to the front. These animals can act as 
sentries, and are so watchful that they often 
detect an approaching enemy after dark, when 
the sentinel has not seen or heard anything. 
Clarion, a noble dog, the pet of the regiment, 
while doing sentry duty was killed by a frag- 
ment of a shell. He was mourned as if he had 
been an officer in command, and was buried 
with military honors. Another famous dog 
was Marquis. The regiment was hotly en- 
gaged, and it became necessary to send a dis- 
patch. The German fire was too intense to risk 
a soldier's life. He would never have lived. to 
deliver the report; but the noble dog did not 
flinch, but when wounded he arose, staggered 
to his feet and dragged himself to the spot re- 

Page 180 



quired, delivered his message and died. He 
has a monument over his grave, "Marquis, 
killed on the field of honor. ,, 

As far back as 1870, the German army began 
to teach dogs for military service. These were 
trained principally to aid the wounded, and 
scent the approach of the enemy. The German 
army now has nearly 2000 dogs in service and 
during a recent drive by the Germans, one of 
these dogs accustomed to go ahead of the 
troops, came back growling and showing that 
there was danger near. It was dark, and the 
soldiers could not see anything; but they knew 
the dog was not mistaken, and they halted. It 
was found later that a large detachment of 
Russians were lying in wait for them, hidden 
in a wood, and only the dog's keen scent had 
saved them. No one can ever tell how many 
lives in this awful conflict have been saved by 
the faithful dog, and it is no cause for wonder 
that soldiers want them and learn to love them 
as brothers. 



Page 181 



STRANGE HABITS OF THE AMERICAN 
COUGAR 



The American cougar, or mountain lion, is 
not a panther, as it is often called. They belong 
to the same family, and in their habits are 
much alike. They are all cats; but the moun- 
tain lion is not the color nor physical form of 
the panther. The panther is of a mouse-color, 
has a head somewhat like a collie dog, and has 
far more slouch in its slow movements than the 
cougar, while the cougar has a head far more 
resembling that of a bull-dog, and is of a tawny 
colored skin. But all this class hunt their 
prey much as the common house cat, and 
strike with their claws like a streak of light- 
ning. They are savage animals, and many 
hunters say they dread the cougar in an at- 
tack, more than the grizzly bear. They do 
very strange things; and it has been observed 
that they seldom attack man unless by mis- 
take; but they do make these mistakes. They 
will hide in a tree or behind a large stump 
overlooking a deer runway, and spring when 
the deer passes. In this way they sometimes 
make their mistake. Two hunters passing 
along a mountain trail, one behind the other, 
the first man carrying his hunting knife in his 

Page 182 



hand, without a gun, passed round a great 
root of an upturned tree, when suddenly a 
cougar from its hiding place sprang on them. 
The man with the knife threw up his hand 
and caught the animal on its point. The cougar 
retreated, but the other man killed it before it 
could escape. In this case there was no doubt 
but the animal had made a mistake, thinking 
that a deer was passing. Another instance is 
recorded where one of these animals leaped 
from a branch into the rear of a driver's ex- 
press wagon as he passed through the forest at 
night; and still another instance, where one 
sprang on the rear of a horse ridden by a lady. 
In the first case the report is that the cougar 
rode a little distance on the man's wagon, 
eyeing the driver with curiosity, and then 
bounded away into the forest. In the other 
case, the frightened horse did not permit the 
intruder to ride; but jumped so suddenly that 
it fell to the ground, making no further effort 
to hold its place. In another instance a traveler 
passing through the forest unarmed on a moon- 
light night, saw a cougar with its head through 
the brush just in advance. As he approached 
it retreated and took up a similar position 
again ahead of him, and continued this play 
until he was out of the forest. At another 
time, one came into the road ahead of a 
traveler and playfully rolled over like a cat. 
As the traveler approached, it ran a little way 
and repeated its gymnastics, and continued this 

Page 188 



coquetry until the frightened man reached an 
old out-building near a ranch, where he took 
shelter in the building and the animal followed ; 
but finding it impossible to reach the man it 
climbed on the roof, and later was killed by one 
from the ranch-house. This animal had no 
bad design whatever. It wanted company. 
Doubtless, it was mateless, and was searching 
for a companion. When one loses its mate, as 
they often do by hunters killing them, the be- 
reaved animal has been known to come within 
city limits and yell all night. A guide, who 
had occasion to take a party a long distance 
through the dense forests, found it would be 
impossible to return before darkness overtook 
him, and not wishing to risk following a blind 
trail after nightfall, fixed a temporary shelter 
against a large tree and laid down to await the 
morning. He went to sleep with his gun across 
his breast. In the night he awoke and was 
conscious he had a bedfellow. Some large 
animal was stretched by his side, with its 
head near his own, and from its breathing he 
judged it was asleep. It was on his left side, 
and the gun-muzzle almost touched its head. 
With the utmost caution the man slipped his 
right hand to the gun-lock, carefully adjusted 
it without noise, moved the muzzle into as 
direct aim as possible in the darkness, and 
without further movement fired and jumped. 
The animal was dead, and when examined, this 
kindly bedfellow was found to be a large 

Page 18U 



cougar. It had investigated, and selected a 
warm place, and like the traveler had gone to 
bed. What it would have done in the morning 
had it not been killed, no man could ever guess ; 
but in all probability, unless ravenously 
hungry, it would have slipped away, without 
even saying "thank you." A sad case is re- 
corded as having occurred not long ago in the 
mountains of the North Pacific. A gentleman 
driving through the forest late in the evening, 
had a small boy sitting in the rear of the 
wagon, when a cougar jumped from an over- 
hanging bough, seized the child and made off. 
It was all done so suddenly that nothing was 
seen but a dark body like a flash bounding 
from the wagon into the dense undergrowth. 
There was nothing that could be done, but to 
abandon the child to the savage brute. 

Sometimes these animals over a carcass will 
eat until they are almost helpless, unable to eat 
more; but will positively refuse to leave the 
uneaten food. In such instances, hunters have 
approached them shooting them several times 
before killing them, while they will not leave 
the carcass. At other times they are so timid 
that when treed by dogs the hunter cannot 
get near enough to the tree to see them, before 
they jump and run; and though a good dog 
can outrun them, they are very hard to 
capture, since they select the fallen logs and 
down timber, where a dog cannot follow; and 
for this reason are not often successfully pur- 
Pa^e 185 



sued. They become very destructive to calves, 
and sheep, or indeed any small stock about 
the farm not protected. An old mother and 
two full-grown cubs have been known to follow 
a woodman out of the forest, coming up to his 
yard-fence. He shot one, wounded another, 
but the two hurried off as they came. There 
is no describing the habits of these animals, 
nor indeed, any others of this class. But as a 
rule, they are the most shy and stealthy of the 
prey-hunters ; the hardest to find, and the most 
dangerous when wounded. But hunger will 
change the character of any wild animal, and 
even that of man himself, is not an exception. 



Page 186 



COULD THIS FLYING SQUIRREL COUNT? 



Two woodsmen one day were clearing off 
land, and cut down a large dead tree. While 
they were at work chopping, the noise and 
jarring of the tree trunk frightened a flying 
squirrel, which the workmen noticed flying 
from the decaying top. When the tree fell, 
a decayed limb broke off, and was partly 
covered by decayed wood which had been pul- 
verized in the fall of the tree. The tree trunk 
was hardly on the ground until the little 
squirrel came sailing back from a near-by tree, 
dropped on the log, and ran swiftly to the 
broken limb. In a moment the workmen noticed 
that she had something in her mouth, and 
running up another tree, was soon out of sight. 
They went to the spot to examine, and there 
was the flying squirrel's nest, which the broken 
limb had exposed, and in it were two baby 
squirrels too young to help themselves. The 
mother, finding her home destroyed, had 
hurried to the fallen tree and carried off one 
baby, and before the workmen left the spot 
was back on the log for another. This one 
was removed, and then the other, in the same 
way. In a few minutes back came the little 
mother on the log. She ran up to the top, 

Page 187 



then back to the stump. Then she jumped to 
the ground and searched in the leaves. She 
seemed so much disturbed and in earnest about 
something, running here, and there, now on 
the log and then on the ground, that she at- 
tracted the men's attention, and they watched 
to see what she would do next. For several 
minutes she continued her search, and finally 
ran to the broken limb, smelling all around it 
carefully. Then she began to dig into the de- 
cayed wood that partly covered it, and a mo- 
ment later sailed off with another baby. It 
had fallen out of the nest when the limb broke, 
and had been covered by the decayed wood. 
The workmen had not seen it, and supposed 
that the three were all she had. But the little 
mother knew how many there were, and re- 
fused to leave the place until she secured them. 
The question now arose, how did she know? 
The three in the nest were all she could 
see. Could she count? And though she 
missed it, how did she know where to dig 
for it? She might have detected the place 
where it was buried by scent; but she had 
some other means of knowing the num- 
ber. One workman contended that this was 
a clear evidence that flying squirrels can 
count; but the other argued it was instinct; 
and they could not agree. But neither at- 
tempted to define instinct, nor has any other 
person ever given a satisfactory definition of 
this much abused word. If it has any definite 

Page 188 



meaning that cannot be shifted about, it is 
the capacity for certain things born with each 
living creature. This varies among both ani- 
mals and birds, and all other living things; 
and as far as we know, is limited to those acts 
in each case, that are necessary for it to do in 
order to live, before it has attained to any 
mental knowledge concerning the act. Instinct, 
therefore, is the spontaneous action of the new- 
born creature, independent of its own choice 
or knowledge; and therefore, covers no con- 
scious acts of the creature. This little mother 
had some other means of knowing the num- 
ber of her babies. 



Page 189 



INTELLIGENT FOXES 



Some people are called "foxy;" this is be- 
cause they are supposed to be tricky; to do sly 
things that deceive other people. This is a 
trait of the fox. He is a hard animal to trap, 
for he seems always to be looking out for 
trouble and is shy of anything that appears 
out of the common order. All wild animals 
roaming the forests have special places where 
they go; sometimes these are the places where 
they drink, others, where they take a nap, 
and still others where they feed. Thus they 
become accustomed to the appearance of every- 
thing about them for they see it so often. 
Every tree, shrub, bunch of grass, little rise 
in the ground, or a little hillock. And because 
of this familiarity, they quickly detect any 
change in the appearance of things, even 
though it is only a changed twig of a tree or 
bunch of grass. Then their scent is so keen 
that anything that has been touched or handled 
by a man, they avoid because of fear. Hunters 
who trap handle their traps with gloved hands 
for this reason; and even then old Mr. Fox 
is so suspicious that some foxes are never 
fooled by a trap. Others as soon as started by 
their enemy have learned the only way to get 

Page 190 



safely from a pack of hounds is to seek a hole 
in the rocks or under some mountain, as 
quickly as possible. They know when there 
they are safe. But other foxes seem to have 
never found such a hiding place, for once 
started by a pack of hounds they will run for 
twenty-four hours or more, round and round 
in a great circle sometimes of ten, or even 
twenty miles, until they are at last too tired 
to keep ahead of the dogs and so are caught. 
But even these do strange things to deceive 
their pursuers. Sometimes they get on a fence 
and for long distances walk on the top rail, to 
throw the dogs off the scent, then jump down 
and run again. At other times they get on an 
old root of a blown down tree, walk a long 
distance out on the trunk, jump to another big 
log and then to another, until they are some 
distance, then again take to the ground. Where 
the hounds cannot get up on these logs, they 
make a great circle, sometimes for half a mile 
or more, until they again strike the trail on 
the ground ; but if Mr. Fox happens to know of 
some hole he can get into in some log, and does 
not again touch the ground, he sometimes de- 
ceives the dogs, while he can peep out and 
see them hunting for him. A gentleman who 
had a pack of hounds he took great pride in, 
had several times run a fox, but could never 
catch it, and he knew it was the same animal, 
because it always took the same course, ran on 
the same circle, and he could never run it down. 

Page 191 



He would go home at night with his dogs ex- 
hausted, but no fox. But he had noticed that 
when he ran that fox, some time during the 
day, it would always run under the root of a 
great tree, wait until the dogs had nearly 
reached it, then jump out and run again. At 
last it dawned on the hunter that there must 
be some trick about that performance, so he 
stationed a man near that stump to watch. 
When the fox came round, evidently intending 
to run in as it had always done, this watcher 
scared it away, and it had to pass. After a 
while the hounds were heard coming, and 
when they neared the stump, out jumped the 
fox as usual and away it went with the dogs 
close after it. The fox trick was now easily 
explained. There were two foxes that did 
the running. When one got tired it ran into 
the old root and rested while the other took 
a turn before the hounds, and so these wise 
animals were saving each other's strength, by 
taking turns running and resting. They were 
both soon caught when each was forced to do 
his own running, with no help from the other. 
One morning, soon after a farmer's wife 
opened the doors of their house, she heard 
hounds running, and a few minutes later a fox 
jumped on the porch, ran into the kitchen, and 
dropped down by the stove and soon died. It 
was but a short time until two hounds ran 
up to the door and stopped. They were nearly 
as badly fatigued as the fox, and immediately 

Page 192 



went out into the yard and laid down. Neither 
the woman, nor her husband knew the hounds. 
She fed them and they were still there the 
following morning. She continued to feed them 
and for three days they laid in her yard, but 
finally arose and trotted off. No one in the 
neighborhood had ever seen them before, and 
none could find to whom they belonged. Some 
weeks afterward it was accidentally ascertained 
that they belonged to a farmer some twenty 
or more miles away. He had started a fox, 
and these dogs ran it all day, all night and 
until the next morning, without stopping or 
eating, until they had run the fox to death 
and nearly killed themselves. 

A farmer who caught a mother fox alive, 
took her home and in the night she gave birth 
to four baby foxes ; in some way she got out of 
her box and made off, leaving her new babies 
behind. The man's old cat had little kittens 
but a day or two older than the foxes, so the 
kittens were replaced by the four baby foxes, 
and the old cat mothered them. The man took 
great pride in his baby foxes, for he said now 
that they would be reared by a cat, they would 
never know that they were foxes, and would 
make fine pets. He sold one or two of them 
when about the size of a common rat; but 
while they were perfectly tame to handle, they 
were foxes all the same. A man who bought 
one soon killed it, for he said the first time he 
let it into his yard it caught one of his young 

Page 193 



chickens. Not one of the four ever came to a 
good end; for like some girls and boys, even 
if they have a good and harmless mother, they 
were "foxy" foxes, and not to be trusted. 



Page 19 It 



STRANGE DEATHS OF ANIMALS 



In the early days of life on the plains, when 
the sparsely settled portion of our Western 
country was inhabited only by Indians, wild 
animals, and the stockmen, these cowboys did 
many strange things. They hunted not only 
the Indians who would run off their stock, steal 
their horses and burn their houses, but they 
often hunted the wolves, and grizzlies in the 
mountains. There are numerous reports of 
these reckless riders running down and lassoing 
the black bear. They would throw their ropes 
around its feet. Usually, two riders would do 
this ; for it was not a safe trick to get a single 
rope on a bear's leg, for its other three would 
make trouble. Once two of these riders came 
on a grizzly bear in the open, and at once de- 
termined to rope it. This was not an easy 
thing to do for several reasons. The grizzly 
is a very different animal from the black bear, 
and the California grizzly is one of the largest 
to be found in this country. They are nearly 
extinct now ; but in those days they were often 
found. These boys put spurs to their ponies. 
A horse can outrun a bear, but horses are 
afraid to approach a bear. Some will become 
unmanageable if they only scent one from a 

Page 195 



distance; but with their terrible spurs they 
forced their horses near enough to throw their 
ropes, and one caught one fore leg and one 
the other. In this way they could keep the 
bear away from each rider, for they placed 
themselves on opposite sides of the animal, 
one rope pulling one way, and the other rope 
the other way, thus rendering the bear power- 
less, unless the noose should slip or one of the 
ropes break. But nothing of the kind happened. 
They firmly sat their horses with the ropes 
fastened to their saddles. The bear growled, 
and fought, bit at the ropes, reared on its hind 
feet, tumbled down, rolled over, and struggled, 
with all the great power it possessed. But 
with both legs held as in a vise, it could do 
nothing but wear itself out with struggle. 
When it found at last that it was hopelessly 
held fast, it laid down, put its face between 
its paws, and died. 

A short time ago an elk was found near a 
city in the West where no elks have been seen 
for many years. How it came there no one 
knew; but it was supposed, it might have 
escaped from some traveling circus. It did 
not seem very wild, and evidently, for some 
reason, was out of its accustomed place. Think- 
ing to capture it alive it was roped; but before 
anything could be done with it, it died. Now, 
the question is, what killed these animals? 
Simply roping them is not sufficient to ac- 
count for their deaths. Some said the elk 

Page 196 



was frightened to death. It is possible, that 
was the case with the elk, but what killed the 
grizzly? The cowboys, concluded that when it 
finally gave up that there was no hope for it to 
get away from its captors, it died of a broken 
heart, and this too, may be the true explan- 
ation. But who can tell? 



Page 197 



SMART SPIDERS 



There are many kinds of spiders. Some are 
so small that they can hardly be seen with the 
naked eye; others are so large that they catch 
humming birds. The very large ones, like most 
of the large wild animals, are found only in 
very warm climates. They are all insects of 
prey, but do not all catch their victims in the 
same way. Some build webs like a circular 
platform, and sit in the middle watching for 
flies and other insects that may fall on it. 
Others build their silk platforms, making them 
quite thick and strong, and do not sit on them, 
but hide away in a corner out of sight, ever 
ready to dart out the moment anything is 
within reach. These platforms are always 
constructed with reference to the locality, and 
what the spider wishes to accomplish. Some 
that live on the ground chiefly, build their silk 
houses with trap-doors. When anything comes 
in that they wish to catch they pull the door 
shut. But if something approaches they are 
afraid of, they shut it out. Some do not build 
webs at all, but are known as jumping spiders. 
These slip up to their prey, and when near 
enough, spring on it. Sometimes when a 
mother spider is in her web attending to her 

Page 198 



own affairs, and a hobo male spider comes 
along, she does not run away, get scared, and 
shut the door, but pounces upon him, kills him, 
and eats him. 

There was a window pane out of the sash 
in an out-building, and on the window sill on 
the inside, a spider built his web platform under 
this opening close to the sill, arranging a kind 
of funnel at one end in which he sat hidden. 
It was somewhat dark in the building, and 
there were no flies, as far as I could see, and 
I could not understand what that spider ex- 
pected to do sitting there in that dark corner 
with such a web. After I watched a little while 
I soon found out his plan. When the sun be- 
came hot on the outside of the building, flies 
would sail into the cooler place through that 
broken glass. As none would stop, however, 
Mr. Spider had arranged a plan to stop them; 
and not only that, but to stop them at the 
exact spot he wanted them. On the inside of 
the open pane he had drawn just two or three 
silk strands. These I had not noticed; but 
presently along came a fly sailing in; it struck 
one of these almost invisible silk strands and 
tumbled right down on that soft platform. It 
never hurt the fly to fall, but before it could 
escape from the web platform the waiting 
spider had caught it and carried it back into 
his den. That spider knew his business. Like 
other sensible people, he built his house ac- 
cording to conditions. 

Page 199 



Once when the soldiers were resting on the 
march during the war, one of them found a 
spider on the ground near by. He stuck a 
stick in the ground three or four feet long, 
and put the spider on it. Immediately, in its 
fright it ran to the top of the stick, attempting 
to get away; but finding it could not jump off, 
and there was nothing else to get on, it hurried 
back toward the ground; but the soldier pre- 
vented it reaching the ground, and again it 
ran up the stick. On reaching the top, for a 
few times it turned round and round, feeling 
outward with a foot as if trying to reach some- 
thing; it then settled itself with its web-spin- 
ning apparatus turned from the stick and 
began spinning a silken thread. There was no 
object within several yards of the stick, and the 
wind began to carry the thread across the 
highway. Every few seconds the spider would 
feel the silk thread with its foot, in the same 
manner a fisherman uses his hand to feel of 
his trolling line while fishing in order to detect 
the bite of a fish. In a little while the long 
thread carried by the wind, and tossed this 
way and that, touched a tree on the other side 
of the roadway and stuck fast. Immediately 
the spider broke the thread from its body, 
fastened the end to the top of the stick, got on 
it, and imitating Blondon, the rope-walker, 
safely crossed to the tree on the other side. 
When this insect turned round and round 
feeling with its foot, it was testing the way of 

Page 200 



the wind, in the same manner the hunter tests 
it when stalking his game. Having ascertained 
this, it turned its body in the right direction 
for the silk thread to be carried from the 
stick. Evidently, the insect knew if it spun 
its thread long enough it would at last touch 
something, and wherever this happened it 
would stick fast, and this was the thing in- 
tended; but to know when this occurred it 
was necessary to continue feeling of the line. 
If these adaptations and adjustments do not 
prove that animals and insects must reason 
just as men reason, within the limits of their 
necessities and capacities, what does all this 
mean? 



Page 201 



THE LAST AND GREATEST FISH STORY 



Oregon is one of the royal fish markets of 
this country. During the spawning season tons 
and tons of large salmon are caught in the 
Columbia river, and other rivers of the state. 
There are many other fishes, also, both of the 
salt and fresh water; but the salmon fisheries, 
especially on the Columbia river, give employ- 
ment to thousands and are known all over the 
world. When the fishing season arrives, the 
docks are loaded with these beautiful fish, 
caught with traps and gill-nets principally 
during the night, and occasionally one is caught 
weighing more than seventy-five pounds. They 
come annually from the ocean seeking the fresh 
water, and their course is a persistent effort to 
swim up stream. As the spawning season 
comes in the early Summer and continues 
during the warm weather, it often occurs that 
the melting snows of the mountains cause all 
the streams to overflow the low lands. It is 
then the fish easily find their way into sloughs 
and overflown ponds by thousands; and when 
the water suddenly subsides as it sometimes 
does, they are left land-locked and perish. 
Near-by farmers have been known to go to 
these places and using a pitchfork, load their 

Page 202 



wagons with dead fish and carry them out on 
their farms for fertilizer. The salmon continue 
their way out into all the small mountain 
streams a persistent but fatal journey, and 
are often found dead far up in waterless places 
where these transient streams left them 
stranded. This is the bear's picnic, since he is 
a lover of fish, but not particular that it shall 
be perfectly fresh. 

When the salmon find a suitable place for 
depositing their eggs they may often be seen 
lying closely side by side apparently in solid 
mass from shore to shore, and as far as the 
eye can see, all heads pointing up stream, and 
each fish keeping up a continued swimming 
motion just sufficient to prevent the current 
from moving them from their selected places. 
In many of these streams there is hardly 
enough water to cover them, and bear have 
been seen to wade out in the water, wait until 
the frightened fish returned to their places 
and then with a sudden and terrific stroke of 
the paw impale and throw a great fish to the 
bank to be eaten at leisure. 

These fish are canned, dried, smoked, placed 
in cold storage, and marketed all over this and 
foreign countries. About the same season 
every year, and in about the same numbers, 
they come in from the ocean, and during a 
single night's fishing two men in a boat will 
sometimes catch three tons of fish. The gov- 
ernment regulates the size that can be taken, 

Page 203 



and the nets are constructed in such a manner 
as to allow the small fish to pass through. It 
has also supervision of a number of hatcheries 
where millions of small salmon are turned out 
every year to find their way to the sea. Many 
people in the East have no proper conception 
of these large and beautiful fishes. A lady 
visiting the state for the first time recently, 
declared she had no idea these fish were so 
large, and in her surprise said, "Why, they are 
whales." 

But this is neither the largest nor strangest 
Oregon fish story. Only recently the following 
statement appeared in the local press of Clat- 
sop county, at the mouth of the Columbia 
river, "Two big water buckets full of live, 
kicking fish weighing from four to sixteen 
ounces and measuring from eight to twelve 
inches in length were secured in less than an 
hour by Judge Thomas Jewett and party on the 
beach near here, Friday morning. Judge 
Jewett was lead to go after the fish through 
stories told by a party who claimed to have 
dug up a large number from the sand the day 
before, but who could not produce the evidence. 
The fish are found about a foot below the sur- 
face, with a little air-spout showing where they 
lie, and have been found here and there from 
Seaside up, for the past year; but never in 
such quantities as are here." At first this 
statement was regarded by readers as a re- 
porter's joke; for no one had ever heard of 

< Page 20h 



fish living under the sand like clams. Little 
attention was paid to the statement until a 
communication from Judge Jewett, an old and 
respected citizen of the state, settled the 
question in the following explicit letter: 
"There is no doubt about the strange fish being 
genuine fish. The first I ever saw was about 
one and a half years ago when I found one; 
but it was only partly buried. I have seen none 
since until about three months ago when I 
found another, since which time I have found 
probably half a dozen one or two at a time. 
About two weeks ago some of the boys were 
out and brought in about fifteen of them, and 
the next night the same party got probably 
one hundred pounds; since then few have been 
found. They have a smooth tough skin with- 
out scales, and in shape resemble the ordinary 
bullhead. The mouth is high up on the head, 
and the outer lips are lined with a row of 
very fine sharp teeth. Most of them were found 
buried in the sand, and were dug up with a 
shovel, their mouths being near the surface 
with small mounds of sand over them. One of 
the smallest, and which I gave to the reporter 
of the Astorian, weighed four ounces and 
measured eight and a half inches in length. 
I think the largest would have weighed fully 
sixteen ounces, and measured twelve inches. 
We had several messes of them at my boarding 
house and found them an excellent flavored 
fish, with no small bones. I am certain they 

Page 205 



are new to this locality, as I have been on the 
beach digging clams and crabs all my life and 
I am sixty-four years old and have never seen 
them until eighteen months ago." Preposterous 
as it seemed, that fish do live in the sand and 
have been dug up like fishermen dig clams, 
has been settled beyond question. But they 
are no ordinary fish, and as Judge Jewett has 
stated, no doubt are new to this locality. The 
name of this fish is "Sand fish," sometimes 
called sand-burrowers. They are closely allied 
to what is known as the sand-eel, belonging to 
the genus technically called the Ammodytes; 
but the Ammodytes are a small fish, sometimes 
known as the launce. These Columbia beach 
fishes are the sand fishes technically named 
Trichodontidae. They burrow in the soft water- 
soaked sand, coming and going with the ocean 
tides. But the statement sometimes made 
that they live in the sand is misleading; they 
live in the water as other fishes, and are pro- 
vided with all the necessities for navigation 
that others possess; but like the bullhead they 
burrow at the bottom of the ocean, and prob- 
ably seek food in the soft shifting sands. That 
they stay long in such places as these were 
found is not reasonable to suppose; nor is it 
likely that these were thus marooned by choice. 
In this instance they were caught, probably, 
under the sand during a receding tide and the 
water soaked sand quickly becoming too dry 
for them to burrow through it, they were left 

Page 206 



behind. Whether another incoming tide would 
release them and allow their rturn to the ocean, 
seems to be somewhat problematical. That 
they were helpless and unable to get out of 
their sand-bed when found is rendered certain 
by the fact that they were so easily taken ; and 
unless the sand covering was again made soft 
enough for them to move it, they certainly 
were trapped, and later would have perished. 
It is not improbable, however, that another 
tide would release them, and at their leisure 
they would have returned to the sea. That a 
number so large was here taken together in- 
dicates that a whole school of these fishes had 
visited the spot, and these like tardy girls and 
boys, tarried so long that they were too late 
to "school" and were punished for their delay. 



Page 207 



UNCLE JACK'S LETTER TO YOUNG 
AMERICA 



Dear Girls and Boys: 

I write you this letter because I love you; 
because a long while ago I was a boy myself, 
and because I know what girls and boys like to 
do, what troubles they have, how forgetful 
they are of many things that would greatly 
aid them to keep out of trouble if they would 
only remember them, and because I have two 
things, especially, to tell you. But before I 
name these things, can you tell me what is 
the greatest thing in this world? That is one 
of these things I now have in mind; but this 
is a great secret, not to be told in this letter; 
one that I have hidden in this book, and which 
I want you to find. When you find it you will 
have the greatest value that any one has ever 
possessed, a gift you all may possess, and that 
will make you as rich as any one ever was in 
this world. Read every word in this book; 
do what this letter advises, and you may learn 
this secret, and win a fine prize, also. 

The other thing I wish to tell you is this: 
This book is all about animals, birds, fishes, 
reptiles and insects. I have been a student 
of animal life ever since I was a small boy; 
have hunted in the forests and mountains, 
fished in the rivers, lakes, and the ocean, have 
trapped animals for their skins, and have had 
many pets of both animals and birds. I have 

Page 208 



learned in these long years now past, many 
strange things about animal life, and some of 
these I have told you in this book. When you 
read them, do not imagine they are just fairy 
stories to amuse you. I believe them to be all 
true. Many of them I positively know to be 
so, others I have from the highest authority, 
while still others have been reported as true 
under conditions that leave no room to doubt 
them. Some of these little stories will make 
you laugh, some will make you almost cry, 
while others will appear so strange that you 
will wonder how they ever could have 
happened. When you have read them do not 
forget the one thing which every one of them 
shows; that is, that all animal life has very 
much in common. The old notion is all wrong; 
the so-called "dumb animals" are far from 
dumb. This old slander is not held now by 
the greatest minds of the world. Animals 
think, plan, rejoice, and suffer just as human 
beings do, and no truly great personage ever 
lived who was cruel to the lower animals. Even 
the true sportsman who shoots game tries to 
avoid giving unnecessary pain, and not to kill 
just for sport. I do not believe any little boy 
or girl, after reading of the wonderful things — 
lovely things — done by some of the animals 
I have mentioned in this book, will want ever 
again to kill a living thing, unless it is abso- 
lutely necessary. But it does become necessary 
sometimes. Dangerous animals, poisonous 
reptiles, and insects and disease-breeding flies, 
should not be allowed to live; at least where 
they may endanger human life. But every boy 
and girl in all our land, should become a mem- 
ber of the Humane Society, and stand up for 
the rights of every living thing. Now, this 

Page 209 



secret hidden in this book which I want you to 
find, came to me one day in this way: 

I was sitting at my window. Over in the 
next yard two beautiful little girls, sisters, 
were romping with a large dog. They climbed 
on his back ; rolled him on the grass ; pulled his 
ears and tail; tied his legs with strings; put a 
string around his neck and tied him fast to a 
tree, and then for a little time went off and 
left him; then they came back and untied him, 
and I suppose because they could not think of 
anything new to do, they got an old tin-can and 
tied this to his tail. Did you ever see that 
done? It is a dreadful thing to do, for it 
frightens a dog so much that he will almost 
run himself to death. If it should get fast and 
pull his tail off, it would ruin him ; or if he was 
unable to pull himself loose, might hold him in 
some place where he would perish before any 
one found him. A gentleman once found a 
beautiful little fox terrier with a terribly 
mangled tail, which might have been caused 
in this way. Anyway this little dog was lost, 
and whether he had run in fright for this cause 
until he was no longer able to find his way 
home, no one ever knew; but he would have 
died had not a kind gentleman taken him, cut 
off the mutilated tail, and then took care of 
him until he became well. When these little 
girls tied the can to this big dog's tail, my 
heart almost stood still, for now I expected to 
see serious trouble. How were they ever to 
get that can off when the dog became fright- 
ened and began to run? I would have gone 
right over and warned them not to do that, but 
then I knew the dog would not let me come 
near those little girls. He went with them 
everywhere they went and would allow no 
stranger to touch them. 

Page 210 



When the can was tied, away went the dog, 
round, and round, and round the house, running 
as if he would kill himself; and how the little 
girls did laugh! Every moment I expected to 
see him go through the yard gate, and then 
they might never see their splendid dog again. 
But to my astonishment after they had as 
much fun out of that old can as they wished, 
dog and girls same back to the shade under the 
tree, and all laid down together on the grass to 
rest. The old dog seemed to have had as much 
fun as the little girls. He was not scared at 
all; he had been just pretending to be scared 
to make them laugh. It was all sham. I had 
never seen any dog act in this way before, and 
it set me to thinking. What was it that caused 
him to do so? Then I remembered another 
time when a dog acted in a somewhat similar 
manner, when a neighbor boy and myself tied 
a bunch of firecrackers to his tail. The dog 
was a pet, and this was a cruel thing to do, not 
only because of the fright to the dog, but we 
never dreamed he might run into the house, 
or into the barn, or about the wheat stacks and 
set the whole place on fire. Here you see a 
common cause for many troubles boys and 
girls get into. They don't think far enough 
ahead. Their heads are like bullet moulds ; they 
get just one thing in and forget everything 
else that they should remember. 

When we had the firecrackers arranged we 
waited to see what would happen. They began 
to sputter, fiz, bang, bang, and we were all 
ready to laugh at the dog's misfortune, but we 
didn't. The dog just sat down and pulled them 
off with his teeth, and lazily walked away to a 
shady place and tumbled down for a nap. All 
our firecrackers were spoiled. 

Page 211 



While thinking of the strange performances 
of these dogs, and wondering why they did 
not get frightened and run like other dogs do, 
I made the discovery of this secret. Now, I 
want every little girl and boy in America 
to find this secret. Read every word in this 
book, and if you cannot find it at the first read- 
ing, go over it again, keep on thinking about 
it, and decide what you believe it is. It is 
mentioned in the Bible many times, and there 
is one text in the New Testament that de- 
scribes it perfectly. This occurred to me while 
watching the little girls at their play. I now 
offer four prizes, the whole amounting to $50 
in gold. First prize, $25. Second prize, $10. 
Third prize, $10. Fourth prize, $5. The con- 
ditions of this competition are as follows: 

Competitors must not be over twelve years 
of age. Each competitor must be the owner 
of this book. Each must decide on some sub- 
ject as the secret, and send the text describing, 
or referring to it, with a letter to the pub- 
lishers, not over 300 words in length, but as 
much shorter as they please. Any name may 
be signed to these letters but the true name 
of the party writing, but they must give their 
true address, and with the letter send one 
dollar to pay for the book; or if the book is 
purchased for them by some one else and given 
as a present, they must give date of pur- 
chase, and the name and address of the buyer. 
Any one can buy the book. This prize offer 
will remain open until the first day of May, 
1916, and awards will be made at some time 
near that date, hereafter to be named. Should 
one or more find this secret, and name the true 
text, the decision for first prize will then be 
determined on the quality of the letters ac- 

Page 212 



companying it and the next nearest to this 
secret will be decided in the same manner, and 
so of the other two. 

Lovingly, 

UNCLE JACK. 



<1» 



